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Jgouore  Ire  Balzac 


Il^onor^  tre  Balzac 

MILITARY  AND   POLITICAL  LIFE 

VOLUME  IV 


LIMITED   TO   ONE    THOUSAND   COMPLETE  COPIES 


NO. 


713 


IN  DORLANGE'S  STUDIO 


"The  sister  that  you  had  not,  madavie,''  he  said 
abruptly,  "I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  giving  you, 
and  I  venture  to  ask  you  to  see  if  you  can  distinguish 
some  slight  family  resemblance  to  yourself T 

As  he  spoke  he  drew  away  the  curtain  behind 
tvhich  his  work  was  concealed,  and  behold,  madame, 
I  appeared  to  myself  in  the  guise  of  a  saint. 


THE    NOVELS 


OF 


HONORE  DE  BALZAC 


NOW   FOR   THE   FIRST   TIME 
COMPLETELY   TRANSLATED    INTO   ENGLISH 

THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

BY  G.  BURNHAM  IVES 


WITH     TEN    ETCHINGS     BY    PIERRE     PAGNIER,     GABRIELLE 

POYNOT,    PAUL-EMILE    LETERRIER,    CHARLES-RENE 

THEVENIN,    LOYS-HENRI     DELTEIL,    FREDERIC- 

ifeMILE  JEANNIN  AND   GUSTAVE-RODOLPHE 

SCHLUMBERGER,    AFTER    PAINTINGS 

BY  ORESTE  CORTAZZO 


VOLUME  I 


PRINTED  ONLY  FOR  SUBSCRIBERS  BY 
GEORGE   BARl^IE  &   SON,  PHILADELPHIA 


COPYRIGHT,   1898,  BY  GEORGE  BARRIE  *  SON 


?9 

J)t£ 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

PART  FIRST 
THE    ELECTION 


2:J 


THE  ELECTION 


It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe,  before  entering 
upon  a  description  of  a  provincial  election,  that  the 
town  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  was  not  the  scene  of  the 
events  therein  described.  The  arrondissement  of 
Arcis  votes  at  Bar-sur-Aube,  which  is  fifteen  leagues 
from  Arcis;  there  is  therefore  no  deputy  from  Arcis 
in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  reserve  demanded 
by  the  history  of  contemporary  manners  has  dic- 
tated these  precautions.  It  may  be,  too,  that  it  is 
an  ingenious  device  to  describe  a  town  as  the  theatre 
of  events  which  did  not  take  place  there.  Several 
times  already,  in  the  course  of  the  COMEDIE 
HUMAINE,  that  method  has  been  employed,  despite 
its  inconvenience,  which  consists  principally  in  this 
— that  the  frame  is  thereby  often  made  of  as  much 
importance  as  the  canvas. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  month  of  April,  1839, 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  salon  of 
Madame  Marion,  widow  of  a  former  receiver-general 
of  the  department  of  the  Aube,  presented  a  strange 
spectacle.  Of  all  the  furniture  of  the  apartment, 
naught   remained    save  the   window-curtains,  the 

(3) 


4  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

ornaments  on  the  mantel-shelf,  the  chandelier  and 
the  tea-table.  The  Aubusson  carpet,  taken  up  a 
fortnight  beforehand,  encumbered  the  front  steps  of 
the  house,  and  the  floor  had  just  been  vigorously 
rubbed,  but  without  making  it  any  brighter.  It 
was  a  sort  of  domestic  presage  concerning  the  result 
of  the  elections  then  in  preparation  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  France.  It  often  happens 
that  things  are  as  clever  as  men.  That  is  an 
argument  in  favor  of  the  occult  sciences.  The  old 
servant  of  Colonel  Giguet,  Madame  Marion's 
brother,  had  finished  brushing  away  the  dust  that 
had  insinuated  itself  into  the  cracks  of  the  floor 
during  the  winter.  The  maid  and  the  cook,  with 
an  alacrity  that  indicated  an  enthusiasm  equal  to 
their  attachment,  were  bringing  the  chairs  from  all 
the  rooms  in  the  house  and  piling  them  up  in  the 
garden.  Let  us  hasten  to  say  that  the  trees  had 
already  put  forth  their  large  leaves,  through  which 
could  be  seen  a  cloudless  sky.  The  spring  air  and 
the  May  sunshine  made  it  possible  to  open  the  long 
door-window  as  well  as  the  two  windows  of  the 
salon,  which  was  oblong  in  shape. 

Directing  the  attention  of  the  two  servants  to  the 
rear  of  the  salon,  the  old  lady  ordered  them  to 
arrange  the  chairs  four  rows  deep,  and  to  leave  a 
passage-way  about  three  feet  wide  between  each 
two  rows.  Soon  each  row  presented  a  front  of  ten 
chairs  of  different  varieties.  A  line  of  chairs  also 
extended  along  by  the  windows  and  the  glass  door. 
At  the  other   end  of  the  salon,  facing  the  forty 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  5 

chairs,  Madame  Marion  placed  three  armchairs 
behind  the  tea-table,  which  was  covered  with  a 
green  cloth  and  upon  which  she  placed  a  bell.  Old 
Colonel  Giguet  arrived  upon  the  battle-field  just  as 
his  sister  had  conceived  the  idea  of  filling  the  empty 
spaces  on  each  side  of  the  fireplace  with  the  two 
benches  from  her  reception-room,  notwithstanding 
the  shabby  condition  of  the  leather  coverings,  which 
already  counted  twenty-four  years  of  service. 

"We  can  seat  seventy  people,"  she  exclaimed 
triumphantly  to  her  brother. 

"God  grant  that  we  have  seventy  friends!'* 
replied  the  colonel. 

"If,  after  we  have  received  the  society  of  Arcis- 
sur-Aube  every  evening  for  twenty-four  years,  a 
single  one  of  our  regular  habitues  should  fail  us  at 
this  crisis!" — said  the  old  lady  with  a  threatening 
expression. 

"Nonsense,"  rejoined  the  colonel  with  a  shrug  of 
his  shoulders,  as  he  interrupted  his  sister,  "I  will 
give  you  the  names  of  ten  who  cannot  and  will  not 
come.  In  the  first  place,"  he  said,  counting  on  his 
fingers,  "Antonin  Goulard,  the  sub-prefect,  one! 
Frederic  Marest,  the  king's  attorney,  two!  Monsieur 
Olivier  Vinet,  his  deputy,  three!  Monsieur  Mar- 
tener,  the  examining  magistrate,  four!  The  justice 
of  the  peace, — " 

"Of  course,"  said  the  old  lady,  interrupting  her 
brother  in  her  turn,  "I  am  not  foolish  enough  to 
expect  people  who  are  in  office  to  attend  a  reception 
of  which  the  purpose  is  to  give  the  opposition  an 


6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

additional  deputy.  And  yet,  Antonin  Goulard, 
Simon's  playmate  in  childhood  and  his  school- 
fellow, will  be  very  glad  to  see  him  chosen  deputy; 
for—" 

"Well,  well,  sister,  leave  us  men  to  do  our  part. 
Where  is  Simon?" 

"He  is  dressing,"  she  replied.  "He  did  well  not 
to  breakfast,  for  he  is  very  nervous,  and,  although 
our  young  advocate  is  accustomed  to  speaking  in 
court,  he  dreads  this  meeting  as  if  he  were  about  to 
face  an  assemblage  of  his  enemies." 

"Faith!  I  have  often  had  to  stand  the  fire  of  an 
enemy's  battery;  at  such  times  my  mind,  I  don't 
say  my  body,  never  trembled;  but,  if  I  had  to  take 
my  stand  here,"  said  the  old  soldier,  walking  to  the 
tea-table,  *  'and  look  at  the  forty  bourgeois  who  will 
be  sitting  in  front  of  me,  open-mouthed,  with  their 
eyes  fastened  on  mine,  and  anticipating  eloquent 
and  grammatical  periods, — why,  my  shirt  would  be 
wet  through  before  I  had  found  my  first  word." 

"However,  my  dear  father,  it  will  be  necessary 
for  you  to  make  that  effort  for  me,"  said  Simon 
Giguet,  entering  through  the  small  salon;  "for  if 
there  is,  in  the  whole  department  of  the  Aube,  a 
man  whose  words  carry  weight,  you  surely  are  that 
man.     In  1815, — " 

"In  181 5,"  interrupted  the  wonderfully  well  pre- 
served little  old  man,  "I  did  not  have  to  speak,  I 
simply  drew  up  a  little  proclamation  that  caused 
two  thousand  men  to  rise  in  twenty-four  hours. 
And  there's  a  vast  difference  between  putting  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  7 

name  at  the  bottom  of  a  paper  that  will  be  read  by 
a  whole  department  and  speaking  to  a  crowd! 
Napoleon  himself  made  a  failure  of  that  trade.  On 
the  1 8  Brumaire  he  talked  utter  nonsense  to  the 
Five  Hundred." 

"But,  my  dear  father,  my  whole  life,  my  fortune, 
my  honor  are  at  stake,"  said  Simon.  "Just  look  at 
one  single  man  and  imagine  you  are  speaking  to 
him;  you  will  get  through  all  right." 

"Mon  Dieu!  I  am  only  an  old  woman,"  said 
Madame  Marion;  "but,  at  such  a  time,  and  know- 
ing how  much  depends  on  it,  why — I  could  be 
eloquent!" 

"Too  eloquent,  perhaps!"  said  the  colonel. 
"And  to  overshoot  the  mark  is  not  to  hit  it.  But 
how  is  there  so  much  at  stake,  anyway?"  he 
continued,  with  a  sharp  glance  at  his  son.  "For 
two  days  past  you  have  expressed  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  your  candidacy  that  —If  my  son  is  not 
chosen,  so  much  the  worse  for  Arcis,  that's  all." 

Those  words,  worthy  of  a  father,  were  in  harmony 
with  the  whole  life  of  the  man  who  uttered  them. 

Colonel  Giguet,  one  of  the  most  highly  esteemed 
men  in  the  Grande  Armee,  was  possessed  of  one  of 
those  characters  whose  basis  is  perfect  uprightness 
combined  with  great  delicacy  of  feeling.  He  never 
put  himself  forward;  favors  must  come  in  search  of 
him;  so  it  was  that  he  remained  for  eleven  years  a 
simple  captain  of  artillery  in  the  guard,  in  which  he 
was  made  major  in  1813,  and  lieutenant-colonel  in 
1814.     His  almost  fanatical  attachment  to  Napoleon 


8  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

would  not  permit  him  to  serve  the  Bourbons  at  the 
time  of  the  first  abdication.  In  fact,  his  devotion  to 
the  Emperor  in  1815  was  so  notorious  that  he  would 
have  been  banished  but  for  the  intervention  of  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville,  who  succeeded  in  having 
his  name  stricken  from  the  order,  and  finally 
obtained  for  him  a  retiring  pension  and  the  rank  of 
colonel.  Madame  Marion,  born  Giguet,  had  another 
brother  who  became  colonel  of  gendarmes  at 
Troyes,  and  whom  she  had  accompanied  to  that 
place.  There  she  married  Monsieur  Marion, 
receiver-general  of  the  Aube.  The  late  Monsieur 
Marion,  the  receiver-general,  had  a  brother  who  was 
first  president  of  an  imperial  court.  That  magis- 
trate, being  then  a  simple  advocate  at  Arcis,  had 
lent  his  name  during  the  Reign  of  Terror  to  the 
famous  Malin — of  the  Aube — representative  of  the 
people,  for  the  purchase  of  the  estate  of  Gondreville. 
So  that  all  the  influence  of  Malin,  become  a  senator 
and  a  count,  was  at  the  service  of  the  Marion  family. 
In  that  way  the  advocate's  brother  obtained  the 
office  of  receiver-general  of  the  Aube  at  a  time 
when,  far  from  having  to  choose  between  thirty 
eager  applicants,  the  government  was  very  glad  to 
find  a  subject  willing  to  accept  such  slippery 
positions.  Marion,  the  receiver-general,  inherited 
the  property  of  his  brother  the  president,  and 
Madame  Marion  that  of  her  brother  the  colonel  of 
gendarmes. 

In   1 8 14  the  receiver-general   suffered  reverses. 
He  died   simultaneously  with  the  Empire,  but  his 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  9 

widow  found  an  income  of  fifteen  tiiousand  francs 
among  the  ruins  of  those  various  fortunes.  Giguet, 
the  colonel  of  gendarmes,  had  left  his  property  to 
his  sister,  upon  learning  of  the  marriage  of  his 
brother  the  artillery  officer,  who  had  espoused, 
about  1806,  one  of  the  daughters  of  a  rich  banker 
at  Hamburg.  Every  one  knows  the  extravagant 
fondness  of  all  Europe  for  the  sublime  troopers  of 
the  Emperor  Napoleon!  In  1814,  Madame  Marion, 
practically  ruined,  returned  to  live  at  Arcis,  her 
native  place,  where  she  purchased  one  of  the  finest 
houses  in  the  town,  on  the  principal  square, — a  house 
whose  location  indicated  that  it  had  once  been  a 
dependency  of  the  chateau.  As  she  was  accustomed 
to  receive  a  large  number  of  people  at  Troyes, 
where  the  receiver-general  held  sway,  her  salon 
was  thrown  open  to  the  notabilities  of  the  liberal 
party  in  Arcis.  A  woman  accustomed  to  salon 
sovereignty  does  not  readily  renounce  it.  Of  all 
habits  those  of  vanity  are  the  most  tenacious. 
First  a  Bonapartist,  then  a  liberal — for,  by  one  of 
the  strangest  of  metamorphoses,  the  soldiers  of 
Napoleon  almost  all  fell  in  love  with  the  constitu- 
tional system, — Colonel  Giguet  was,  during  the 
Restoration,  the  natural  president  of  the  advisory 
committee  at  Arcis,  which  committee  was  composed 
of  Grevin  the  notary,  his  son-in-law  Beauvisage 
and  Varlet  the  younger,  the  leading  physician  of 
Arcis,  Grevin's  brother-in-law,  and  of  some  other 
liberal  notabilities. 

**If  our  dear  child  is  not  elected,"  said  Madame 


lO  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Marion,  after  a  glance  into  the  reception-room  and 
the  garden  to  see  that  no  one  was  listening,  "he  will 
not  get  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage;  for  a  marriage 
with  Cecile  is  involved  in  the  success  of  his 
candidacy." 

"Cecile!"  exclaimed  the  old  man,  opening  his 
eyes  and  staring  at  his  sister  with  an  air  of  stupe- 
faction. 

"I  fancy  that  you  are  the  only  person  in  the 
whole  department,  brother,  who  is  able  to  forget 
the  dowry  and  expectations  of  Mademoiselle  Beauvi- 
sage!" 

"She  is  the  wealthiest  heiress  in  the  department 
of  the  Aube,"  said  Simon  Giguet. 

"But  it  seems  to  me  that  my  son  is  not  to  be 
despised,"  rejoined  the  old  campaigner;  "he  is  your 
heir,  he  already  has  his  mother's  property,  and  I 
myself  expect  to  leave  him  something  more  than 
my  bare  name!" 

"All  that  put  together  does  not  make  thirty 
thousand  francs  a  year,  and  there  are  people  with 
that  income,  to  say  nothing  of  their  rank,  who  have 
already  offered  themselves,  and — " 

"And — ?"  queried  the  colonel. 

"And  have  been  refused!" 

"What  do  the  Beauvisages  want,  in  God's 
name.?"  exclaimed  the  colonel,  looking  from  his 
sister  to  his  son. 

It  may  be  thought  surprising  that  Colonel  Giguet, 
brother  of  Madame  Marion,  in  whose  salon  the  best 
society   of   Arcis   had    assembled    every    day   for 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  II 

twenty-four  years,  whose  salon  echoed  all  the 
rumors,  all  the  slander,  all  the  gossip  of  the  depart- 
ment of  the  Aube, — perhaps  it  was  manufactured 
there, — should  be  ignorant  of  events  and  facts  of 
that  nature;  but  his  ignorance  will  appear  perfectly 
natural  as  soon  as  we  have  noted  the  fact  that  that 
noble  remnant  of  the  old  Napoleonic  phalanxes  went 
to  bed  and  rose  with  the  fowls,  as  all  old  men  do 
who  wish  to  live  their  whole  lives.  Therefore  he 
was  never  present  at  the  confidential  conversations. 
There  are  in  the  provinces  two  sorts  of  confidential 
conversations,  those  which  are  held  officially  when 
everybody  is  present,  playing  cards  and  chatter- 
ing; and  those  which  simmer,  like  a  well-watched 
soup,  when  three  or  four  friends  only  are  left  in 
front  of  the  fire,  friends  whose  discretion  is  sure 
and  who  repeat  nothing  that  is  said,  except  by  their 
own  firesides  to  three  or  four  other  friends  equally 
discreet.  For  the  past  nine  years,  ever  since  the 
triumph  of  his  political  principles,  the  colonel  had 
lived  almost  outside  of  society.  Rising  always  with 
the  sun,  he  had  devoted  himself  to  horticulture,  he 
adored  flowers  and,  of  all  kinds  of  flowers,  he 
cultivated  roses  alone.  He  had  the  black  hands  of 
the  professional  gardener,  he  tended  his  own  squares 
of  flowers.  His  squares!  that  word  reminded  him 
of  the  squares  of  multicolored  men  drawn  up  on  the 
battle-field.  Always  in  conference  with  his 
gardener,  he  had  mingled  little,  especially  during 
the  last  two  years,  in  society,  of  which  he  caught 
occasional  glimpses.     He  took  but  one  meal  with 


12  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  family,  dinner;  for  he  rose  too  early  to  breakfast 
with  his  son  and  sister.  We  owe  to  the  efforts  of 
the  colonel  the  famous  Giguet  rose,  with  which  all 
lovers  of  flowers  are  familiar.  The  old  man,  having 
become  a  sort  of  domestic  fetich,  was  exhibited,  as 
may  be  imagined,  on  great  occasions.  Some 
families  are  blessed  with  a  demigod  of  that  sort,  and 
decorate  themselves  with  him  as  with  a  title. 

"I  have  imagined  that  I  could  detect,  since  the 
Revolution  of  July,"  said  Madame  Marion  to  her 
brother,  "an  aspiration  on  Madame  Beauvisage's 
part  to  live  in  Paris.  Being  compelled  to  remain 
here  as  long  as  her  father  lives,  she  has  transferred 
her  ambition  to  the  head  of  her  future  son-in-law, 
and  the  fair  lady  dreams  of  the  glories  of  political 
life." 

"Do  you  love  Cecile?**  the  colonel  asked  his  son. 

"Yes,  father." 

"Does  she  love  you?" 

"I  think  so,  father;  but  it  is  equally  necessary 
for  me  to  please  the  grandfather  and  the  mother. 
Although  Goodman  Grevin  is  trying  to  defeat  my 
election,  my  success  would  induce  Madame  Beau- 
visage  to  accept  me,  for  she  will  hope  to  govern  my 
actions  as  she  pleases,  to  be  a  minister  under  my 
name — " 

"Ah!  a  very  pretty  idea!"  cried  Madame  Marion. 
"For  what  does  she  take  us,  pray?" 

"Whom  has  she  refused?"  the  colonel  asked  his 
sister. 

"Why,  they  say  that  within  three  months  Antonin 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  13 

Goulard  and  the  king's  attorney,  Monsieur  Marest, 
have  received  equivocal  replies  which  are  ail  they 
want  except  3. yes!" 

"Oh!  bless  my  soul!"  exclaimed  the  old  man, 
raising  his  arms,  "what  times  we  live  in!  Why, 
Cecile  is  the  daughter  of  a  cap-maker  and  the 
grand-daughter  of  a  farmer.  Madame  Beauvisage 
wants  a  Comte  de  Cinq-Cygne  for  a  son-in-law, 
does  she?" 

"Don't  sneer  at  the  Beauvisages,  brother.  Cecile 
is  rich  enough  to  be  able  to  choose  a  husband 
anywhere,  even  in  the  party  to  which  the  Cinq- 
Cygnes  belong.  But  I  hear  the  door-bell  announcing 
the  arrival  of  some  electors,  so  I  leave  you,  very 
much  regretting  that  I  can  not  hear  what  is  going 
to  be  said." 

Although  1839  's,  politically  speaking,  a  very  long 
way  from  1847,  we  can  still  remember  the  elections 
that  produced  the  coalition,  an  ephemeral  experiment 
made  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  to  carry  out  the 
threat  of  a  parliamentary  government;  a  threat  ^  la 
Cromwell  which,  without  a  Cromwell,  could  lead 
to  no  other  result,  under  a  prince  who  was  the  foe 
of  fraud,  than  the  triumph  of  the  present  system, 
wherein  the  Chambers  and  the  ministers  resemble 
wooden  actors  moved  about  by  the  proprietor  of 
Guignol's  show,  to  the  immense  satisfaction  of  the 
passers-by,  who  are  always  wonderstruck. 

The  arrondissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  was  at  that 
time  in  a  curious  situation, — it  believed  itself  to  be 
free  to  elect  a  deputy.     From  1816  to  1836  it  had 


14  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

always  chosen  one  of  the  dullest  orators  of  the  Left, 
one  of  the  seventeen  who  were  all  called  great 
citizens  by  the  liberal  party,  to  wit,  Francois  Keller 
of  the  house  of  Keller  Freres,  and  son-in-law  of  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville.  Gondreville,  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  estates  in  France,  is  situated  about 
a  fourth  of  a  league  from  Arcis.  The  banker, 
recently  created  a  count  and  peer  of  France, 
expected  undoubtedly  to  transmit  to  his  son,  then 
thirty  years  of  age,  his  seat  in  the  Chamber,  in 
order  to  make  him  a  fit  subject  some  day  for  a 
peerage.  Already  a  major  on  the  staff,  and  one  of 
the  favorites  of  the  Prince  Royal,  Charles  Keller 
had  been  made  a  viscount  and  belonged  to  the  party 
of  the  Citizen  King's  court.  The  most  exalted 
destiny  was  apparently  in  store  for  a  young  man 
immensely  rich,  full  of  courage,  notoriously  devoted 
to  the  new  dynasty,  grandson  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville,  and  nephew  of  the  Marechale  de 
Carigliano;  but  that  election,  so  essential  to  his 
future,  presented  some  obstacles  very  difficult  to 
surmount.  Since  the  accession  to  power  of  the 
bourgeois  class,  Arcis  was  conscious  of  a  vague 
desire  to  exhibit  its  independence.  So  that  the  last 
election  of  Francois  Keller  had  been  disturbed  by  a 
few  republicans,  whose  red  caps  and  scrubby  beards 
had  not  intimidated  the  good  people  of  Arcis  over- 
much. By  working  upon  the  prejudices  of  the 
province,  the  radical  candidate  might  get  together 
some  thirty  or  forty  votes.  Some  of  the  inhabitants, 
humiliated  to  see  their  town  included  among  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 5 

rotten  boroughs  of  the  opposition,  joined  the  demo- 
crats, although  they  were  opposed  to  democracy. 
In  France,  when  elections  are  at  hand,  divers 
politico-chemical  products  are  evolved  in  which  the 
laws  of  natural  affinities  are  overthrown.  Now,  to 
elect  the  young  military  officer  Keller,  in  1839, 
after  electing  the  father  for  twenty  years,  would 
denote  genuine  electoral  servitude,  against  which 
the  pride  of  several  newly-rich  bourgeois  rose  in 
revolt,  for  they  deemed  themselves  quite  as  good 
as  Malin,  Comte  de  Gondreville,  the  bankers  Keller 
Fr^res,  the  Cinq-Cygnes  ajid  even  the  King  of  the 
French  himself!  And  so  the  numerous  partisans  of 
old  Gondreville,  the  king  of  the  department  of  the 
Aube,  were  awaiting  a  new  manifestation  of  his 
adroitness,  so  often  demonstrated.  In  order  to 
avoid  endangering  the  influence  of  his  family  in  the 
arrondissement  of  Arcis,  that  old  statesman  would 
doubtless  propose  as  his  candidate  some  resident  of 
the  province,  who  would  retire  in  favor  of  Charles 
Keller  and  accept  some  public  office;  a  situation 
which  makes  the  choice  of  the  people  eligible  for 
re-election.  When  Simon  Giguet  sounded,  on  the 
subject  of  the  election,  the  ex-notary  Grevin,  the 
count's  loyal  friend,  that  old  gentleman  replied  that, 
having  no  knowledge  of  the  count's  intentions,  he 
proposed  to  make  Charles  Keller  his  candidate,  and 
should  exert  all  his  influence  to  secure  his  election. 
As  soon  as  that  reply  of  Goodman  Grevin  became 
known  in  Arcis,  there  was  a  reaction  against  him. 
Although  during  a  notarial  service  of  thirty  years, 


l6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

that  Champagne  Aristides  had  possessed  the  confi- 
dence of  the  town,  although  he  had  been  Mayor  of 
Arcis  from  1804  to  1814  and  during  the  Hundred 
Days;  although  the  opposition  had  accepted  him  for 
its  leader  down  to  the  triumph  of  1830,  a  time  at 
which  he  declined  the  honor  of  the  mayoralty  on 
the  pretext  of  his  great  age;  and  although  the  town, 
to  testify  its  regard  for  him,  had  then  taken  his  son- 
in-law,  Monsieur  Beauvisage,  for  its  mayor,  they 
rebelled  against  him,  and  some  young  people  went 
so  far  as  to  accuse  him  of  being  in  his  dotage.  The 
adherents  of  Simon  Giguet  turned  to  Phileas  Beau- 
visage,  the  mayor,  and  used  him  to  the  better 
advantage  because,  without  being  on  bad  terms 
with  his  father-in-law,  he  affected  an  independence 
which  degenerated  into  coldness,  and  which  his 
crafty  father-in-law  allowed  him  to  display,  seeing 
in  it  an  excellent  means  of  extending  his  own 
influence  over  the  town  of  Arcis. 

Monsieur  le  maire,  when  questioned  the  day 
before  upon  the  public  square,  had  declared  that  he 
would  vote  for  the  first  name  inscribed  on  the  list 
of  eligible  candidates  in  Arcis,  rather  than  give  his 
vote  to  Charles  Keller,  for  whom  however  he  had 
the  highest  esteem. 

"Arcis  shall  not  be  a  rotten  borough  any  longer," 
he  said,  "or  I  will  emigrate  to  Paris." 

Encourage  the  passions  of  the  moment  and  you 
become  a  hero  everywhere,  even  at  Arcis-sur-Aube. 

"Monsieur  le  maire,"  people  said,  "has  put  the 
seal  on  the  firmness  of  his  character." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 7 

Nothing  progresses  more  rapidly  than  a  legal 
rebellion.  During  the  evening  Madame  Marion  and 
her  friends  arranged  for  the  next  day  a  meeting  of 
independent  electors  in  the  interest  of  Simon  Giguet, 
the  colonel's  son.  That  next  day  dawned  and 
turned  the  whole  household  topsy-turvy  to  receive 
the  friends  upon  whose  independence  they  relied. 
Simon  Giguet,  the  native-born  candidate  of  a  small 
town  desirous  to  return  one  of  its  own  children, 
had,  as  we  see,  taken  advantage  of  this  agitation  of 
the  public  mind  to  become  the  representative  of  the 
needs  and  interests  of  Champagne  Pouilleuse.  And 
yet,  all  the  consideration  and  the  fortune  of  the 
Giguet  family  were  the  work  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville.  But  is  there  such  a  thing  as  sentiment 
in  election  matters?  This  Scene  is  written  for  the 
information  of  countries  which  are  so  unfortunate 
as  not  to  know  the  advantages  of  national  represen- 
tation, and  are  consequently  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
intestine  wars  and  the  sacrifices  a  la  Brutus  by 
which  a  small  town  gives  birth  to  a  deputy!  A 
majestic  natural  spectacle  comparable  only  to  that 
of  child-birth:  the  same  struggles,  the  same  un- 
pleasant features,  the  same  agony,  the  same  triumph! 
The  reader  may  wonder  how  an  only  son,  of  ample 
means,  happened  to  be,  like  Simon  Giguet,  a  simple 
advocate  in  the  little  town  of  Arcis,  where  advocates 
are  almost  useless. 

A  word  concerning  the  candidate  becomes  neces- 
sary at  this  point. 

Between  .1806  and  181 3  the  colonel  had  by  his 


l8  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

wife,  who  died  in  1814,  three  children,  the  eldest  of 
whom,  Simon,  survived  the  two  younger,  one  of 
whom  died  in  1818,  the  other  in  1825.  Until  he 
was  left  alone,  Simon  was  brought  up  as  a  man  to 
whom  the  practice  of  a  lucrative  profession  was 
necessary.  Having  become  an  only  son,  Simon  met 
with  a  reverse  of  fortune.  Madame  Marion  had 
made  many  plans  for  her  nephew  in  anticipation  of 
the  grandfather's  inheritance,  the  Hamburg  banker, 
but  that  German  died  in  1826,  leaving  his  grandson 
only  two  thousand  francs  a  year.  The  banker, 
being  endowed  with  a  vast  procreative  faculty,  had 
beguiled  the  tedium  of  business  by  the  pleasures  of 
paternity;  and  so  he  discriminated  in  favor  of  the 
families  of  eleven  other  children  who  were  clustered 
about  him  and  who  made  him  believe,  what  was  by 
no  means  improbable,  that  Simon  Giguet  would  be 
rich.  The  colonel  was  determined  that  his  son 
should  embrace  an  independent  profession.  For 
this  reason:  The  Giguets  could  look  for  no  favors 
from  the  ruling  powers  while  the  government  of  the 
Restoration  endured.  Even  if  Simon  had  not  been 
the  son  of  an  ardent  Bonapartist,  he  belonged  to  a 
family  all  of  whose  members  had  incurred  the  just 
resentment  of  the  Cinq-Cygne  family  in  connection 
with  the  part  taken  by  Giguet,  the  colonel  of  gen- 
darmes, and  the  Marions,  Madame  Marion  included, 
as  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  in  the  famous 
trial  of  Messieurs  de  Simeuse,  unjustly  convicted  in 
1805  of  the  sequestration  of  the  Comte  de  Gondre- 
ville,  then  a  senator  and  formerly  a  representative 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  19 

of  the  people,  who  had  laid  hands  upon  the  for- 
tune of  the  Cinq-Cygne  family.  Grevin  was  not 
only  one  of  the  most  important  witnesses  but  one  of 
the  most  ardent  instigators  of  that  affair.  The  sub- 
ject of  that  prosecution  still  divided  the  arrondisse- 
ment  of  Arcis  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  insisted 
upon  the  innocence  of  the  accused  and  consequently 
was  favorably  disposed  toward  the  family  of  Cinq- 
Cygne,  the  other  favored  the  Comte  de  Gondreville 
and  his  adherents.  If  the  Comtesse  de  Cinq-Cygne, 
under  the  Restoration,  exerted  all  the  influence  the 
return  of  the  Bourbons  gave  her  to  rule  as  she  pleased 
in  the  department  of  the  Aube,  the  Comte  de  Gon- 
dreville was  able  to  offset  the  royalty  of  the  Cinq- 
Cygnes  by  the  authority  he  secretly  exerted  over 
the  liberals  through  the  medium  of  Colonel  Giguet, 
the  notary  Grevin,  his  own  son-in-law  Keller,  who 
was  always  elected  deputy  from  Arcis-sur-Aube  in 
spite  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes,  and  lastly  by  the 
influence  he  retained  in  the  crown  counsels  so  long 
as  Louis  XVIII.  lived.  Not  until  after  that  king's 
death  was  the  Comtesse  de  Cinq-Cygne  able  to 
procure  the  appointment  of  Michu  as  president  of 
the  court  of  first  instance  at  Arcis.  She  was  bent 
upon  giving  that  place  to  the  son  of  the  steward 
who  died  on  the  scaffold  at  Troyes,  the  victim  of 
his  devotion  to  the  Simeuse  family,  and  whose  full- 
length  portrait  adorned  her  salon,  both  at  Paris  and 
at  Cinq-Cygne.  The  Comte  de  Gondreville  had 
sufficient  influence  to  prevent  the  appointment  of 
Michu  until  1823. 


20  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

It  was  by  the  Comte  de  Gondreville's  advice  that 
Colonel  Giguet's  son  was  bred  a  lawyer.  Simon 
was  the  more  likely  to  shine  in  the  arrondissement 
of  Arcis  because  he  was  the  only  advocate  there,  it 
being  customary  for  solicitors  to  try  their  own  cases 
in  such  small  places.  Simon  had  won  some  triumphs 
at  the  assize  court  of  the  department;  but  he  was 
none  the  less  a  favorite  subject  of  the  satire  of 
Frederic  Marest,  the  king's  attorney,  Olivier  Vinet, 
his  substitute,  and  President  Michu,  the  three  ablest 
functionaries  of  the  tribunal.  Simon  Giguet,  like 
most  men,  paid  large  tribute  to  the  great  power  of 
ridicule.  He  liked  to  hear  himself  talk,  he  gave  his 
views  on  every  subject,  he  solemnly  emitted  dull, 
endless  sentences  that  passed  for  eloquense  in  the 
upper  middle  class  of  Arcis.  The  poor  fellow 
belonged  to  that  class  of  bores  who  insist  upon 
explaining  everything,  even  the  simplest  things. 
He  explained  the  rain;  he  explained  the  causes  of 
the  Revolution  of  July;  he  explained  impenetrable 
things  as  well;  he  explained  Louis-Philippe;  he 
explained  Monsieur  Odillon  Barrot;  he  explained 
Monsieur  Thiers;  he  explained  the  Eastern  question; 
he  explained  Champagne;  he  explained  1789;  he 
explained  the  customs  tariff  and  the  humanitarians, 
magnetism  and  the  theory  of  the  Civil  List.  That 
thin,  bilious-looking  young  man,  of  sufficient  stature 
to  justify  his  sonorous  nullity — it  rarely  happens 
that  a  very  tall  man  has  remarkable  faculties — sur- 
passed the  Puritanism  of  the  men  of  the  Extreme 
Left,    self-conscious   as    they    all    were    after    the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  21 

manner  of  prudes  who  have  intrigues  to  conceal. 
Always  dressed  in  black,  he  wore  a  white  cravat, 
which  he  allowed  to  hang  down  far  below  his  neck; 
thus  his  face  seemed  to  emerge  from  a  horn  of  white 
paper,  for  he  retained  the  high,  starched  shirt  collar, 
which  fashion  has  very  fortunately  proscribed.  His 
coats  and  trousers  always  seemed  to  be  too  large. 
He  had  what  is  called  in  the  provinces  dignity,  that 
is  to  say  he  held  himself  very  straight  and  stiff,  and 
was  very  tiresome:  his  friend  Antonin  Goulard 
accused  him  of  imitating  Monsieur  Dupin.  In  very 
truth  the  advocate  was  somewhat  overshod  with  his 
buckled  shoes  and  coarse  black  grogram  stockings. 
Protected  by  the  general  esteem  with  which  his  old 
father  was  regarded,  and  by  the  influence  which  his 
aunt  exerted  in  a  small  town  whose  principal 
inhabitants  had  been  frequenting  her  salon  for 
twenty-four  years,  Simon  Giguet,  already  possessed 
of  about  ten  thousand  francs  a  year,  without  count- 
ing the  fees  yielded  by  his  practice  and  his  aunt's 
fortune,  which  could  not  fail  to  fall  to  him  some  day, 
Simon  Giguet,  we  say,  had  no  doubt  of  his  election. 
Nevertheless  the  first  stroke  of  the  bell,  announcing 
the  arrival  of  the  most  influential  electors,  echoed 
in  the  ambitious  youth's  heart,  awaking  vague 
apprehensions  there.  Simon  did  not  shut  his  eyes 
to  the  adroitness  or  the  vast  resources  of  old  Grevin, 
nor  to  the  effect  of  all  the  heroic  methods  to  which 
the  ministry  would  resort  in  support  of  the  candidacy 
of  a  gallant  young  officer  then  in  Africa,  attached  to 
the  service  of  the  Prince  Royal,  son  of  one  of  the 


22  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

ex -great  cftizens  of  France  and  nephew  of  a  mar- 
shal's wife. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  he  said  to  his  father,  "that  I 
have  the  colic.  I  feel  an  insinuating  warmth 
below  the  pit  of  the  stomach  that  causes  me  some 
anxiety." 

"The  most  experienced  soldiers,"  replied  the 
colonel,  "used  to  have  a  similar  sensation  when 
the  cannon  began  to  roar  at  the  outset  of  a 
battle." 

"What  will  it  be  in  the  Chamber  then?"  said  the 
advocate. 

"The  Comte  de  Gondreville  told  us,"  replied 
the  old  soldier,  "that  more  than  one  orator  expe- 
riences some  of  the  little  inconveniences  which 
used  to  attend  the  beginning  of  battles  for  us  old 
leather-breeches.  All  that  for  a  few  tiresome 
words. — However,  you  want  to  be  deputy,"  said 
the  old  man,  shrugging  his  shoulders,  "so  take  the 
consequences!" 

"Triumph,  father,  means  Cecile!  Cecile  means 
a  great  fortune!  In  these  days  a  great  fortune 
means  power." 

"Ah!  how  times  have  changed!  Under  the 
Emperor,  all  one  needed  was  to  be  brave!" 

"Every  age  can  be  summed  up  in  a  word!"  said 
Simon,  repeating  a  remark  of  the  old  Comte  de 
Gondreville  which  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  that 
old  man.  "Under  the  Empire,  when  they  wanted 
to  kill  a  man,  they  said:  'He's  a  coward!*  To-day 
they  say:    'He's  a  swindler!'  " 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  23 

"Poor  France!  where  are  they  taking  you!" 
cried  the  colonel.  "I  am  going  back  to  my 
roses." 

"Oh!  stay,  father!  You  are  the  keystone  of  the 
arch!" 


The  mayor,  Monsieur  Phileas  Beauvisage,  was 
the  first  to  appear,  accompanied  by  his  father-in- 
law's  successor,  the  busiest  notary  in  town,  Achilla 
Pigoult,  grandson  of  an  old  man  who  held  the  office 
of  justice  of  the  peace  at  Arcis  during  the  Revolution, 
during  the  Empire  and  during  the  early  days  of  the 
Restoration.  Achille  Pigoult  was  about  thirty -two 
years  old;  he  had  been  for  eighteen  years  clerk  to 
old  Grevin,  with  no  hope  of  ever  becoming  a  notary. 
His  father,  the  son  of  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
had  died  of  what  was  said  to  be  apoplexy;  he  had 
been  unfortunate  in  business.  The  Comte  de 
Gondreville,  with  whom  old  Pigoult  was  connected 
by  the  bonds  of  1793,  had  lent  the  money 
required  to  be  deposited  as  security  and  had  thus 
facilitated  the  purchase  of  Grevin 's  office  by  the 
grandson  of  the  justice  who  held  the  original  exami- 
nation in  the  Simeuse  affair.  Achille  had  established 
his  office  on  the  church  square,  in  a  house  belonging 
to  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  which  that  peer  had 
let  to  him  at  such  a  low  rent  that  it  was  easy  to  see 
how  anxious  the  cunning  politician  was  to  have  the 
leading  notary  of  Arcis  always  in  his  hand.  Young 
Pigoult,  a  little,  dried-up  man,  whose  eyes  seemed 
to  pierce  the  green  spectacles  which  did  not  di- 
minish the  maliciousness  of  his  expression,  familiar, 
with  all  the  interests  of  the  province  and  owing  to 
(25) 


26  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

his  long  experience  in  legal  matters  a  certain  readi- 
ness of  speech,  was  considered  ?i  joker,  and  certainly 
introduced  many  more  witty  remarks  in  his  conver- 
sation than  the  majority  of  the  natives  in  theirs. 
He  was  still  a  bachelor,  awaiting  an  advantageous 
marriage  from  the  kind  offices  of  his  two  patrons, 
Grevin  and  the  Comte  de  Gondreville.  Wherefore 
Giguet  the  advocate  made  a  gesture  of  surprise 
when  he  saw  Achille  beside  Monsieur  Phileas 
Beauvisage. 

The  little  notary,  whose  face  was  so  scarred  by 
the  small-pox  that  it  resembled  a  net  with  white 
meshes,  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
corpulent  person  of  monsieur  le  maire,  whose  face 
resembled  a  full  moon,  but  a  moon  of  a  jovial  turn 
of  mind.  The  lily  and  rose  complexion  was  height- 
ened in  Phileas  by  an  amiable  smile,  due  not  so 
much  to  any  special  amiability  of  disposition  as  to 
that  tendency  of  the  lips  which  the  word  poupin  has 
been  invented  to  describe.  Phileas  Beauvisage  was 
blessed  with  such  abundant  self-satisfaction  that  he 
always  smiled  at  everybody  under  all  circumstances. 
His  poupin  lips  would  have  smiled  at  a  funeral.  The 
animation  which  abounded  in  his  childlike  blue  eyes 
did  not  contradict  that  everlasting,  intolerable  smile. 
That  inward  satisfaction  passed  the  more  readily  for 
benevolence  and  amiability  in  that  Phileas  had 
created  a  language  of  his  own,  remarkable  for  the 
immoderate  use  of  the  forms  of  courtesy.  He 
always  had  the  honor,  he  added  to  all  his  inquiries 
relative  to  the  health  of  persons  not  present  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  2.^ 

adjectives  dear,  good  or  excellent.  He  lavished  com- 
plimentary phrases  in  regard  to  the  petty  miseries 
or  petty  joys  of  human  life.  He  thus  concealed 
under  a  deluge  of  commonplaces  his  incapacity,  his 
absolute  lack  of  education,  and  a  weakness  of 
character  which  can  be  expressed  only  by  the 
somewhat  antiquated  word  weathercock.  But  have 
no  fear!  that  weathercock  had  for  the  axis  upon 
which  it  revolved  the  fair  Madame  Beauvisage, 
Severine  Grevin,  the  noted  woman  of  the  arrondisse- 
ment.  And  so,  when  Severine  heard  of  what  she 
called  Monsieur  Beauvisage's  freak,  apropos  of  the 
election,  she  said  to  him — it  was  that  very  morning: 

"It  wasn't  a  bad  idea  of  yours  to  put  on  independ- 
ent airs;  but  you  shall  not  go  to  the  Giguet  meeting 
without  Achille  Pigoult,  and  I  have  told  him  to  call 
for  you!" 

To  give  Beauvisage  Achille  Pigoult  for  his  mentor, 
was  simply  to  send  a  spy  of  the  Gondreville  party 
to  the  Giguet  meeting.  So  that  everyone  can  now 
imagine  the  grimace  that  distorted  Simon's  puritan 
face  when  he  was  compelled  to  extend  a  friendly 
greeting  to  an  habitue  of  his  aunt's  salon,  an  influ- 
ential elector,  in  whom  he  at  once  detected  a  foe. 

"Ah!"  he  said  to  himself,  "I  did  very  wrong  to 
refuse  to  provide  the  money  for  his  deposit  when  he 
asked  me  for  it!  Old  Gondreville  was  brighter  than 
I. — Good  morning,  Achille,"  he  said  aloud,  assuming 
a  jaunty  air.  "You  are  going  to  put  a  drag  on  my 
wheels,  I  suppose!" 

"I  don't  think  that  your  meeting  is  a  conspiracy 


28  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

against  the  independence  of  our  votes,"  rejoined  the 
notary  with  a  smile.  "Aren't  we  playing  a  fair 
game?" 

"Fair  game!"  echoed  Beauvisage. 

Whereupon  the  mayor  laughed  that  expression- 
less laugh  with  which  some  persons  conclude  every 
sentence,  and  which  should  be  called  the  refrain  of 
conversation.  Monsieur  le  maire  then  assumed 
what  we  must  call  his  third  position,  standing 
straight,  his  chest  bent  in,  his  hands  behind  his 
back.  He  wore  a  black  coat  and  trousers,  and  was 
resplendent  in  a  white  waistcoat,  thrown  partly 
open  in  such  way  as  to  show  two  diamond  studs 
worth  several  thousand  francs. 

"We  will  fight  and  be  none  the  less  good  friends," 
said  Phileas.  "That  is  the  essence  of  constitutional 
manners!  Ha!  ha!  ha!  That's  how  I  understand 
the  alliance  of  monarchy  and  liberty.    Ha!  ha!  ha!" 

Thereupon  monsieur  le  maire  took  Simon's  hand, 
saying: 

"How  are  you,  my  dear  friend?  Your  dear  aunt 
and  our  worthy  colonel  are  as  well  to-day  doubtless 
as  they  were  yesterday — at  least  it  is  fair  to  pre- 
sume so. — Ha!  ha!  ha!"  he  added,  with  an  air  of 
perfect  beatitude,  "a  little  disturbed  perhaps  by 
the  ceremony  that  is  about  to  take  place.  Ah!  on 
my  word,  young  man,  we  are  entering  on  a  political 
career.  Ha!  ha!  ha! — This  is  our  first  step.  There's 
no  drawing  back — it's  a  great  risk  and  I  prefer  that 
you,  rather  than  I,  should  embark  upon  the  stormy, 
tempestuous  sea  of  the  Chamber, — hi!  hi! — however 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  29 

agreeable  it  may  be  for  a  man  to  feel  that  in  his 
person — hi!  hi!  hi! — resides  one  four  hundred  and 
fifty -third  of  the  sovereign  power  of  France! — Hi!  hi! 
hi!" 

Phileas  Beauvisage's  voice  had  a  pleasant  sonor- 
ousness quite  in  harmony  with  the  full  curves  of  his 
pumpkin-colored  face,  with  his  broad  back  and  his 
inflated  chest.  That  voice,  which  resembled  a  tenor 
in  volume,  had  a  velvety  softness  like  a  baritone, 
and  there  was  a  silvery  tinkle  in  the  laugh  with 
which  Phileas  accompanied  the  ends  of  his  sen- 
tences. If  God  had  desired  a  specimen  of  the 
provincial  bourgeois  in  His  terrestrial  paradise,  to 
complete  His  collection,  He  could  not  have  made 
with  His  hands  a  finer  and  more  perfect  specimen 
than  Phileas  Beauvisage. 

"I  admire  the  devotion  of  those  who  can  determine 
to  throw  themselves  into  the  tempests  of  political 
life.  Eh!  eh!  eh!  to  do  that  one  needs  nerves  that 
I  have  not.  Who  would  ever  have  said  in  1812  or 
18 1 3  that  we  should  reach  this  point?  For  my  part 
I  am  ready  for  anything,  at  a  time  when  asphalt, 
India  rubber,  railroads  and  steam  are  changing  the 
ground  we  walk  on,  the  style  of  overcoats,  and 
distances — Eh!    eh!" 

These  last  words  were  largely  flavored  with  the 
laugh  with  which  Phileas  embellished  the  poor  jests 
in  which  bourgeois  delight;  but  he  accompanied 
them  with  a  gesture  which  he  had  made  his  own: 
he  clenched  his  right  fist  and  inserted  it  in  the 
hollowed   palm   of  his   left  hand,  and   kneaded  it 


30  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

gleefully.  That  manoeuvre  coincided  with  his  laugh 
on  the  frequent  occasions  when  he  thought  that  he 
had  said  a  good  thing. 

Perhaps  it  is  superfluous  to  say  that  Phileas  was 
looked  upon  in  Arcis  as  a  most  amiable  and  delight- 
ful man. 

"I  will  try,"  Simon  Giguet  responded,  "to 
represent  worthily — " 

"The  sheep  of  Champagne,"  retorted  Achille 
Pigoult  quickly,  interrupting  his  friend. 

The  candidate  swallowed  the  epigram  without 
replying  to  it,  for  he  was  obliged  to  greet  two  other 
electors.  One  was  the  proprietor  of  Ix  Mulct,  the 
best  inn  at  Arcis,  located  on  the  principal  square  at 
the  corner  of  Rue  de  Brienne.  The  worthy  inn- 
keeper, one  Poupart,  had  married  the  sister  of  a 
man-servant  in  the  employ  of  the  Comtesse  de 
Cinq-Cygne,  the  famous  Gothard,  one  of  the 
prominent  performers  in  the  prosecution.  In  due 
time  Gothard  was  acquitted.  Poupart,  although  he 
was  one  of  the  most  devoted  partisans  of  the 
Cinq-Cygnes  to  be  found  in  Arcis,  had  been  sounded 
within  a  day  or  two  by  Colonel  Giguet's  servant  so 
perseveringly  and  dexterously,  that  he  believed 
that  he  was  playing  a  trick  on  the  mortal  enemy  of 
the  Cinq-Cygnes  by  exerting  his  influence  in  favor 
of  Simon  Giguet's  election,  and  he  had  conversed 
upon  that  subject  with  a  druggist  named  Fromaget, 
who,  as  he  did  not  receive  the  trade  of  the  Chateau 
de  Gondreville,  asked  nothing  better  than  to  join  a 
cabal  against  the    Kellers.     Those  two  prominent 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARQS  31 

members  of  the  petty  bourgeoisie  were  able,  by 
virtue  of  their  business  connections,  to  control  a 
certain  number  of  floating  votes,  for  they  advised  a 
multitude  of  men  who  cared  nothing  whatever  for 
the  political  opinions  of  the  candidates.  The  advo- 
cate took  possession  of  Poupart  and  turned  the 
druggist  Fromaget  over  to  his  father,  who  came  in  and 
greeted  theelectorsalready  arrived.  The  sub-engineer 
of  the  arrondissement,  the  secretary  to  the  munici- 
pality, four  bailiffs,  three  solicitors,  the  clerk  of  the 
local  court  and  the  clerk  to  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
the  receiver  of  taxes  and  the  recorder,  two 
physicians,  rivals  of  Grevin's  brother-in-law  Varlet, 
a  miller  named  Laurent  Coussard,  leader  of  the 
republican  party  of  Arcis,  Phileas's  two  deputies, 
the  printer-publisher  of  Arcis  and  a  dozen  or  more 
bourgeois  entered  one  after  another,  and  walked 
about  the  garden  in  groups,  waiting  until  the 
assemblage  should  be  sufficiently  numerous  for  the 
meeting  to  open.  At  last,  toward  noon,  some  fifty 
persons,  all  in  their  Sunday  best,  took  their  seats 
on  the  chairs  Madame  Marion  had  arranged  for 
them,  the  majority  having  come  from  curiosity  to 
see  the  beautiful  salons  which  were  so  celebrated 
throughout  the  arrondissement.  The  windows  were 
left  open,  and  soon  there  was  such  absolute  silence 
that  the  rustle  of  Madame  Marion's  silk  dress  could 
be  distinctly  heard,  as,  unable  to  resist  the  tempta- 
tion, she  stole  down  into  the  garden  and  took  up  a 
position  where  she  could  hear  the  electors.  The 
cook,  the  chambermaid  and  the  manservant  stood 


32  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

in  the  dining-room  and  shared  the  emotions  of  their 
masters. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Simon  Giguet,  "some  of  you 
desire  to  do  my  father  the  honor  of  offering  him  the 
chairmanship  of  this  meeting;  but  Colonel  Giguet 
requests  me  to  express  his  acknowledgments  to  you, 
with  all  the  gratitude  induced  by  that  desire,  which 
he  looks  upon  as  a  reward  for  his  services  to  his 
country.  We  are  in  my  father's  house,  he  con- 
siders it  his  duty  to  decline  the  honor,  and  he 
suggests  the  name  of  an  honorable  merchant,  upon 
whom  your  suffrages  have  conferred  the  chief 
magistracy  of  the  town,  Monsieur  Phileas  Beau- 
visage." 

"Bravo!  bravo!" 

"We  are  agreed,  I  believe,  upon  the  wisdom  of 
adopting  for  this  meeting — an  essentially  amicable 
occasion,  but  entirely  free,  and  in  no  way  binding 
upon  the  great  preparatory  meeting  at  which  you 
will  question  the  candidates  and  weigh  their  deserts 
— of  adopting,  I  say,  the — constitutional  rules  of 
the — elective  Chamber." 

"Yes!  yes!"  the  assemblage  exclaimed  with  one 
voice. 

"I  have  the  honor  therefore,  in  accordance  with 
the  desire  of  the  meeting,  to  request  Monsieur  le 
maire  to  take  the  chair." 

Phileas  rose  and  crossed  the  salon,  conscious  that 
he  had  become  as  red  as  a  cherry.  And  when  he 
was  behind  the  table,  he  saw,  not  a  hundred  eyes, 
but  a  hundred  thousand  candles.     The  sun,  too, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  33 

seemed  to  be  playing  the  part  of  a  conflagration  in 
the  room,  and  he  had,  to  use  his  own  expression,  a 
salt-store  in  his  throat. 

"Thank  them!"  said  Simon  in  an  undertone. 

"Messieurs — " 

There  was  such  a  profound  silence  that  Phileas 
had  an  attack  of  colic. 

"What  shall  I  say,  Simon?"  he  asked  in  a  low 
tone. 

"Well?— "said  Achille  Pigoult. 

"Messieurs,"  said  the  advocate,  stung  by  the 
little  notary's  cruel  interpellation,  "the  honor  you 
confer  upon  Monsieur  le  maire  may  well  take  him 
by  surprise  without  astonishing  him." 

"That  is  how  it  is,"  said  Beau  visage;  "I  am  too 
sensible  of  the  compliment  paid  me  by  my  fellow- 
citizens  not  to  be  exceedingly  flattered  by  it." 

"Bravo!"  cried  the  notary  all  by  himself. 

"May  the  devil  take  me,"  said  Beau  visage  to 
himself,  "if  they  ever  get  me  again  where  I  have 
to  make  a  speech!" 

"Will  Messieurs  Fromaget  and  Marcelin  under- 
take the  duties  of  inspectors?"  said  Simon  Giguet. 

"It  would  be  more  regular,"  said  Achille  Pigoult, 
rising,  "for  the  meeting  itself  to  elect  the  twt) 
members,  if  we  are  to  imitate  the  Chamber." 

"That  would  be  the  better  way,"  said  the  bulky 
Monsieur  Mollot,  the  clerk  of  the  court;  "otherwise 
what  we  are  doing  now  would  be  a  farce,  and  we 
should  not  be  free.  Why  shouldn't  we  do  every- 
thing as  Monsieur  Simon  says,  in  that  case?" 
3 


34  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Simon  whispered  a  few  words  to  Beauvisage,  who 
rose  to  give  birth  to  a  "Messieurs!"  which  might  be 
said  to  be  of  thrilling  interest. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Monsieur  le  president,"  said 
Achilie  Pigouit,  "but  your  duty  is  to  preside,  not  to 
discuss." 

"Messieurs,  if  we  are — to  conform — to  parlia- 
mentary customs,"  said  Beauvisage,  prompted  by 
Simon,  "I  will  request — the  honorable  Monsieur 
Pigouit — to  address  you — from  this  table — " 

Pigouit  walked  quickly  to  the  tea-table,  stood 
there  with  his  fingers  resting  lightly  on  the  edge, 
and  demonstrated  his  audacity  by  speaking  without 
embarrassment, — almost  like  the  illustrious  Monsieur 
Thiers,  as  follows: 

"It  was  not  I,  messieurs,  who  made  the  suggestion 
that  we  should  imitate  the  Chamber;  for  hitherto 
the  Chambers  have  seemed  to  me  to  be  truly 
inimitable;  nevertheless,  I  could  readily  conceive 
that  an  assemblage  of  some  sixty  or  more  notables 
of  Champagne  should  provide  itself  with  a  chairman, 
for  no  flock  can  do  without  a  shepherd.  If  we  had 
voted  by  secret  ballot,  I  am  very  sure  that  the  name 
of  our  estimable  mayor  would  have  received  your 
unanimous  suffrages;  his  opposition  to  the  candidate 
supported  by  his  kinsfolk  proves  that  he  possesses 
civic  courage  in  the  highest  degree,  as  he  is  brave 
enough  to  disregard  the  strongest  of  all  ties,  those 
of  the  family!  To  place  one's  country  before  one's 
family  requires  such  a  mighty  wrench,  that,  in  order 
to    accomplish    it,   we   are    always    compelled   to 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  35 

remind  ourselves  that  Brutus  has  been  looking 
down  upon  us  from  his  judgment-seat  on  high  for 
the  past  two  thousand  five  hundred  and  some  odd 
years.  It  seems  natural  to  Master  Giguet,  who  is 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  divining  your  wishes  relative 
to  the  chairmanship,  to  act  as  our  guide  once  more 
in  the  matter  of  inspectors;  but,  by  approving  my 
observation,  you  expressed  your  opinion  that  once 
was  enough,  and  you  were  right!  Our  common 
friend,  Simon  Giguet,  who  is  to  come  forward  as  a 
candidate,  would  have  the  air  of  coming  forward  as 
a  master,  and  might  thereupon  lose  the  benefit  in 
our  minds  of  the  modest  attitude  assumed  by  his 
father.  Now  what  does  our  worthy  chairman  do 
when  he  accepts  the  method  of  presiding  suggested 
to  him  by  the  candidate?  he  takes  away  our 
liberty!  I  ask  you:  is  it  proper  for  the  chairman  of 
our  choice  to  tell  us  to  choose  the  two  inspectors 
by  a  rising  vote?  Why,  that  is  in  itself  a  selection, 
messieurs!  Should  we  be  free  to  choose?  Can  a 
man  remain  seated  when  his  neighbor  stands?  It 
would  be  suggested,  I  imagine,  that  everybody 
should  rise,  as  a  matter  of  courtesy;  and,  as  we 
should  all  rise  for  each  one  of  us,  there  would  be  no 
choice,  for  each  of  us  would  necessarily  be  unani- 
mously elected." 

"He  is  right,"  said  the  sixty  electors. 

"Let  each  of  us  therefore  write  two  names  on  a 
ballot,  and  they  who  shall  take  their  places  beside 
Monsieur  le  president  will  be  entitled  to  look  upon 
themselves  as  two  ornaments  to  society;  they  will 


36  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

have  authority,  conjointly  with  Monsieur  le  presi- 
dent, to  decide  as  to  the  result  of  subsequent  rising 
votes.  We  are  here,  I  believe,  to  promise  to  some 
candidate  such  influence  as  each  of  us  has  at  his 
disposal  at  the  preparatory  meeting  which  will  be 
attended  by  all  the  electors  of  the  arrondissement. 
This  is  a  serious  matter,  I  solemnly  declare.  Is  not 
a  four-hundredth  part  of  the  power  of  the  State 
involved,  as  Monsieur  le  maire  observed  just  now, 
with  the  quick  wit  for  which  he  is  noted  and  which 
we  all  appreciate  so  highly?" 

During  this  harangue  Colonel  Giguet  was  engaged 
in  cutting  a  sheet  of  paper  into  small  slips  and  Simon 
sent  for  pens  and  an  inkstand.  The  meeting  was 
suspended. 

This  preliminary  discussion  concerning  the  form 
of  procedure  had  disturbed  Simon  beyond  measure 
and  had  aroused  the  attention  of  the  sixty  bourgeois 
present  Soon  they  began  to  write  their  ballots 
and  the  crafty  Pigoult  succeeded  in  securing  the 
choice  of  Monsieur  Mollot,  the  clerk  of  the  court, 
and  Monsieur  Godivet,  the  recorder.  That  result 
of  course  dispjeased  Fromaget,  the  druggist,  and 
Marcelin,  the  solicitor. 

"You  have  served,"  said  Achille  Pigoult  to  them, 
"as  the  instruments  by  which  we  have  made  our 
independence  manifest;  you  should  be  more  proud 
to  be  rejected  than  if  you  had  been  chosen." 

Everybody  laughed.  Simon  Giguet  restored  silence 
by  addressing  the  chairman,  whose  shirt  was  already 
moist  and  who  summoned  all  his  courage  to  say: 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  37 

"Monsieur  Simon  Giguet  has  the  floor." 

"Messieurs,"  said  the  advocate,  "I  beg  leave  to 
thank  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult,  who,  although  our 
meeting  is  entirely  friendly — " 

"It  is  a  meeting  preliminary  to  the  great  prelimi- 
nary meeting,"  observed  Marcelin,  the  solicitor. 

"That  is  what  I  was  about  to  explain,"  rejoined 
Simon.  "I  thank  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  above 
all  for  having  introduced  parliamentary  procedure 
in  all  its  rigor.  This  is  the  first  time  that  the 
arrondissement  of  Arcis  will  make  use  freely — " 

"Freely!"  echoed  Pigoult,  interrupting  the  orator. 

"Freely!"  shouted  the  meeting. 

"Will  make  use  freely,"  continued  Simon  Giguet, 
"of  its  rights  in  the  great  battle  of  the  general 
election  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies;  and  as  we 
shall  have,  within  a  few  days,  a  meeting  of  all  the 
electors  to  pass  upon  the  merits  of  the  candidates, 
we  should  esteem  ourselves  very  fortunate  in 
having  this  opportunity  to  become  accustomed  here, 
among  ourselves,  to  the  usages  of  such  meetings; 
we  shall  be  the  better  equipped  to  deliberate  con- 
cerning the  political  future  of  the  town  of  Arcis,  for 
the  question  at  issue  to-day  is  whether  a  town  shall 
be  substituted  for  a  family,  the  province  for  a  single 
man — " 

Simon  thereupon  gave  the  history  of  the  elections 
for  twenty  years  past.  While  approving  the  suc- 
cessive elections  of  Francois  Keller,  he  said  that  the 
moment  had  come  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the 
house  of  Gondreville.     Arcis  must  not  be  a  liberal 


38  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

fief  any  more  than  a  fief  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes. 
There  were  springing  up  in  France,  at  that  moment, 
advanced  theories  of  government,  which  the  Kellers 
did  not  represent.  Charles  Keller,  having  become 
a  viscount,  belonged  to  the  court  party;  he  would 
have  no  independence  at  all,  for,  in  presenting  him 
as  a  candidate  for  their  suffrages,  his  sponsors 
thought  much  more  of  securing  for  him  the  succes- 
sion to  his  father's  peerage  than  the  succession  to  a 
seat  in  the  Chamber,  etc.,  etc.  And  finally  Simon 
offered  himself  for  the  choice  of  his  fellow-citizens, 
promising  to  take  his  seat  beside  the  illustrious 
Monsieur  Odillon  Barrot,  and  never  to  desert  the 
glorious  banner  of  progress.  Progress!  one  of  the 
words  behind  which  people  strove  at  that  time  to 
marshal  many  more  treacherous  ambitions  than 
ideas;  for,  after  1830,  it  represented  nothing  more 
than  the  pretensions  of  a  few  famished  democrats. 
Nevertheless  that  word  still  produced  much  effect 
in  Arcis,  and  gave  an  appearance  of  solidity  to  him 
who  inscribed  it  on  his  banner.  To  style  one's  self  a 
man  of  progress  was  to  proclaim  one's  self  a  philoso- 
pher in  all  directions  and  a  puritan  in  politics.  That 
was  the  formula  for  declaring  in  favor  of  railroads, 
mackintoshes,  penitentiaries,  wood-paving,  abolition 
of  slavery,  savings  banks,  seamless  shoes,  illumi- 
nating gas,  asphalt  sidewalks,  universal  suffrage 
and  the  reduction  of  the  Civil  List.  Furthermore, 
it  was  a  declaration  against  the  treaties  of  181 5, 
against  the  elder  branch,  against  the  Colossus 
of  the   North,   perfidious   Albion,   against   all   the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  39 

enterprises  of  the  government,  good  or  bad.  As  we 
see,  the  word  progress  might  mean  no  as  well  as 
yesi — It  was  a  refurbishing  of  the  word  liberalism,  a 
new  password  for  newly-risen  ambitions. 

**\f  I  rightly  understand  what  we  are  here  for," 
said  Jean  Violette,  a  hosiery  manufacturer  who  had 
purchased  the  Beauvisage  plant  two  years  before, 
*'it  is  to  agree,  all  of  us,  to  do  all  we  can  to  help 
elect  Monsieur  Simon  Giguet  deputy  in  place  of 
Comte  Francois  Keller.  If  we  all  understand  that 
we're  to  combine  for  that  purpose,  why,  all  we 
have  to  do  is  just  to  say  so." 

"That  would  be  coming  to  the  point  too  fast! 
Political  affairs  can't  be  rushed  through  like  that, 
for  in  that  case  they  would  not  be  politics  at  all!" 
cried  Pigoult,  as  his  grandfather,  eighty-six  years 
of  age,  entered  the  room.  "The  last  speaker 
assumes  to  decide  what,  in  my  feeble  opinion, 
should  be  properly  discussed.     1  claim  the  floor." 

"Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  has  the  floor,"  said 
Monsieur  Beauvisage,  able  at  last  to  utter  that 
phrase  with  municipal  and  constitutional  dignity. 

"Messieurs,"  said  the  little  notary,  "if  there  is 
one  house  in  Arcis  where  no  voice  should  be  raised 
against  the  influence  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville 
and  the  Kellers,  is  not  this  the  house? — The  excel- 
lent Colonel  Giguet  is  the  only  inmate  of  this  house 
who  has  not  felt  the  effects  of  the  senatorial  power, 
for  he  certainly  never  asked  any  favors  of  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville,  who  caused  his  name  to  be 
stricken  from  the  list  of  those  proscribed  in  181 5, 


40  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and  secured  for  him  the  pension  he  now  enjoys, 
without  the  venerable  colonel,  the  glory  of  us  all, 
lifting  a  finger." 

A  murmur  complimentary  to  the  veteran  greeted 
that  sentence. 

"But,"  continued  the  orator,  "the  Marions  are 
covered  with  the  count's  benefactions.  Except  for 
his  protection,  the  late  Colonel  Giguet  would  never 
have  commanded  the  gendarmerie  of  the  Aube. 
The  late  Monsieur  Marion  would  never  have  been 
president  of  the  imperial  court  except  for  the 
support  of  the  count,  to  whom  I  shall  always  be 
under  obligation! — You  will  not  think  it  strange 
therefore  that  I  am  his  advocate  in  this  presence! — 
Indeed  there  are  few  people  in  our  arrondissement 
who  have  not  received  favors  from  that  family." 

There  was  a  commotion  among  the  audience. 

"A  candidate  takes  his  place  in  the  witness-chair," 
continued  Achille  warmly,  "and  I  have  the  right  to 
scrutinize  his  life  before  investing  him  with  my 
powers.  Now  I  do  not  choose  to  have  an  ingrate 
for  my  deputy,  for  ingratitude  is  like  misfortune: 
one  instance  leads  to  another.  We  have  been,  you 
say,  the  stepping-stone  of  the  Kellers;  ah!  but  what 
I  have  just  heard  leads  me  to  fear  that  we  are  to  be 
the  stepping-stone  of  the  Giguets.  We  live  in  a 
positive  age,  do  we  not?  Very  good,  let  us  consider 
what  will  be  the  results  of  the  election  of  Simon 
Giguet,  so  far  as  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis  is 
concerned.  They  talk  about  independence!  Simon, 
of  whom  I  speak  slightingly  as  a  candidate,  is  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  41 

friend,  as  he  is  tlie  friend  of  all  who  listen  to  me, 
and  personally  I  should  be  delighted  to  see  him 
become  an  orator  of  the  Left,  take  his  place  between 
Garnier-Pages  and  Laffitte,  but  what  will  the 
arrondissement  gain  by  it? — The  arrondissement 
will  have  lost  the  support  of  the  Comte  de  Gondre- 
ville  and  the  Kellers.  We  shall  all  have  need  of 
them  both  within  five  years.  We  go  to  see  the 
Marechale  de  Carigliano  to  obtain  the  discharge  of 
some  rascal  who  draws  an  unlucky  number.  We 
resort  to  the  influence  of  the  Kellers  in  many 
matters  that  are  decided  upon  their  recommendation. 
We  have  always  found  the  old  Comte  de  Gondre- 
ville  ready  to  do  us  a  service:  that  a  man  is  from 
Arcis  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  be  admitted  to  his 
presence  without  cooling  one's  heels  in  the  ante- 
chamber. Those  three  families  know  everybody 
in  Arcis. — Where  is  the  strong-box  of  the  Giguet 
family,  and  what  will  its  influence  amount  to  in  the 
departments? — What  credit  will  it  have  on  the 
Bourse  at  Paris?  If  it  becomes  necessary  to  rebuild 
in  stone  our  wretched  wooden  bridge,  will  the 
Giguets  obtain  the  requisite  funds  from  the  depart- 
ment and  the  coffers  of  the  State? — By  electing 
Charles  Keller  we  prolong  a  compact  of  alliance 
and  friendship  which,  up  to  this  day,  has  been 
productive  of  nothing  but  advantage  to  us.  By 
electing  my  worthy,  my  excellent  schoolfellow,  my 
good  friend  Simon  Giguet,  we  shall  suffer  for  it 
until  the  day  that  he  becomes  a  minister!  I  know 
his  innate  modesty  so  well  that  I  do  not  think  he 


42  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

will  contradict  me  if  I  express  some  doubt  of  his 
very  speedy  elevation  to  that  dignity!" — Laughter. 
— "I  attended  this  meeting  in  order  to  oppose  a  step 
which  I  consider  fatal  to  thisarrondissement.  Charles 
Keller  belongs  to  the  court!  some  one  will  say. 
Why,  so  much  the  better!  we  shall  not  have  to  pay 
the  cost  of  his  apprenticeship  in  politics,  he  knows 
the  needs  of  the  province,  he  is  familiar  with  parlia- 
mentary customs,  he  is  nearer  to  being  a  statesman 
than  my  friend  Simon,  who  will  not  pretend  that  he 
has  fashioned  himself  into  a  Pitt  or  a  Talleyrand  in 
our  little  town  of  Arcis." 

"Danton  went  from  this  town!"  cried  Colonel 
Giguet,  furious  at  those  extremely  just  extempora- 
neous remarks. 

"Bravo!" 

The  word  was  an  acclamation;  sixty  persons  were 
clapping  their  hands. 

"My  father  is  very  bright,"  said  Simon  Giguet 
to  Beauvisage,  in  an  undertone. 

"I  do  not  understand,"  said  the  old  colonel, 
springing  suddenly  to  his  feet,  as  a  hot  flush  over- 
spread his  face,  "I  do  not  understand  why  the  bonds 
that  unite  us  to  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  should 
be  dragged  into  election  discussions.  My  son's 
fortune  comes  from  his  mother,  he  has  never  asked 
any  favors  from  the  Comte  de  Gondreville.  If  the 
count  had  never  lived  Simon  would  be  what  he  is: 
the  son  of  a  colonel  of  artillery  who  owes  his  rank 
to  his  services,  and  an  advocate  whose  political 
opinions  have  not  changed.     I  would  say  aloud  and 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  43 

to  the  Comte  de  Gondreville's  face:  'We  elected 
your  son-in-law  twenty  years;  to-day  we  propose  to 
prove  that  in  electing  him  we  were  acting  voluntarily, 
and  we  take  a  native  of  Arcis,  in  order  to  show  that 
the  old  spirit  of  1789,  to  which  you  owe  your  for- 
tune, still  lives  in  the  country  of  the  Dantons,  the 
Malins,  the  Grevins,  the  Pigoults  and  the  Marions.* 
— That's  all  1  have  to  say!" 

And  the  old  man  took  his  seat. 

Thereupon  there  was  a  great  uproar.  Achille 
opened  his  mouth  to  reply.  Beauvisage,  who  would 
not  have  considered  himself  chairman  unless  he 
jangled  his  bell,  added  to  the  confusion  by  demand- 
ing silence.     It  was  then  two  o'clock. 

"1  will  venture  to  remind  the  honorable  Colonel 
Giguet,  whose  feelings  it  is  easy  to  understand, 
that  he  took  the  floor  without  permission,  which  is 
contrary  to  parliamentary  custom,"  said  Achille 
Pigoult. 

"I  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  call  the  colonel  to 
order,"  said  Beauvisage.     "He  is  the  father — " 

Silence  was  restored. 

"We  didn't  come  here,"  cried  Fromaget,  "to  say 
amen  to  whatever  the  Messieurs  Giguet,  father  and 
son,  choose  to  say." 

"No,  no!"  cried  the  meeting. 

"This  is  going  badly!"  said  Madame  Marion  to 
her  cook. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Achille,  "I  confine  myself  to 
asking  my  friend  Simon  Giguet  the  categorical 
question,  what  he  proposes  to  do  in  our  interest?" 


44  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Yes!  yes!" 

"Since  when,"  said  Simon  Giguet,  "have  worthy 
citizens  like  those  of  Arcis  chosen  to  make  the 
sacred  mission  of  deputy  the  subject  of  barter  and 
sale?" 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  the  effect  produced  by 
noble  sentiments  upon  an  aggregation  of  men. 
They  applaud  high-sounding  maxims,  but  they  vote 
none  the  less  for  the  degradation  of  their  country, 
just  as  the  galley-slave,  who  longs  for  the  punish- 
ment of  Robert  Macaire  when  he  sees  the  play, 
goes  away  and  murders  Monsieur  Germeuil  or 
somebody  else. 

"Bravo!"  cried  several  pure-blooded  Giguet 
electors. 

"You  will  send  me  to  the  Chamber,  if  you  send 
me  there  at  all,  to  represent  principles,  the  principles 
of  1789!  to  be  one  of  the  ciphers,  if  you  will,  of  the 
opposition,  but  to  vote  with  the  opposition,  to  warn 
the  government,  to  make  war  on  abuses,  and  to 
demand  progress  in  everything — " 

"What  do  you  mean  by  progress?  So  far  as  we 
are  concerned  progress  would  consist  in  putting 
Champagne  Pouilleuse  under  cultivation,"  said 
Fromaget. 

"Progress?  I  propose  to  explain  it  as  I  understand 
it!"  cried  Giguet,  irritated  by  the  interruption. 

"It  means  the  Rhine  frontier  for  France,"  said  the 
colonel,  "and  the  destruction  of  the  treaties  of 
1815!" 

"It  means  that  wheat  is  always  to  be  sold  at  a 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  45 

high  price,  and  bread  to  be  always  cheap,"  cried 
Achilie  Pigoult  mockingly,  thinking  that  he  was 
perpetrating  a  witticism  by  repeating  one  of  the 
nonsensical  catch-phrases  so  popular  in  France. 

"It  means  the  happiness  of  all,  secured  by  the 
triumph  of  humanitarian  doctrines." 

**What  did  I  say?"  the  cunning  notary  inquired 
of  his  neighbors. 

"Hush!  silence!  let  us  hear!"  exclaimed  several 
curious  bourgeois. 

"Messieurs,"  said  the  bulky  Mollot,  with  a  smile, 
"the  discussion  is  beginning;  give  your  attention  to 
the  speaker,  let  him  explain  his  views." 

"In  every  period  of  transition,  messieurs," 
resumed  Simon  Giguet  gravely,  "and  the  present  is 
one  of  those  periods — " 

"Baa!  baa!"  exclaimed  a  friend  of  Achilie 
Pigoult,  who  was  a  master  of  the  art — a  sublime 
art  at  election  time — of  ventriloquism. 

A  general  laugh  ran  through  the  assemblage, 
which  was  Champenois  before  everything.  Simon 
Giguet  folded  his  arms  and  waited  until  the  storm 
of  laughter  had  passed  over. 

"If  it  was  the  purpose  of  that  interruption  to  give 
me  a  lesson,"  he  resumed,  "to  remind  me  that  I 
march  with  the  glorious  flock  of  the  defenders  of 
humanity,  who  utter  cry  upon  cry,  issue  book  upon 
book,  of  the  immortal  priest  who  pleads  for  dis- 
membered Poland,  of  the  courageous  pamphleteer 
who  keeps  watch  upon  the  Civil  List,  of  the  philos- 
ophers who  demand  sincerity  in  the  conduct  of  our 


4-6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

institutions,  then  I  thank  my  unknown  interrupter! 
To  me  progress  means  the  fulfilment  of  all  the 
promises  made  to  us  at  the  Revolution  of  July,  it 
means  electoral  reform,  it  means — " 

"So  you're  a  democrat,  are  you?"  queried 
Achille  Pigoult. 

"No!"  replied  the  candidate.  "Is  it  to  be  a 
democrat  to  desire  the  regular,  legitimate  develop- 
ment of  our  institutions?  To  me  progress  means 
the  re-establishment  of  brotherhood  between  the 
members  of  the  great  French  family;  and  we  can 
not  blind  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  much  suffering — " 


At  three  o'clock  Simon  Giguet  was  still  giving  his 
idea  of  progress,  and  some  of  his  audience  were 
giving  utterance  to  rhythmical  snoring  which 
denoted  sound  sleep.  The  malevolent  Achilla 
Pigoult  had  urged  everybody  to  listen  religiously  to 
the  orator,  who  floundered  about  and  was  lost  to 
sight  in  a  sea  of  phrases  and  periphrases.  At  that 
moment  several  groups  of  bourgeois,  electors  and 
non-electors,  were  standing  in  front  of  the  chateau 
of  Arcis,  whose  main  gateway  opened  on  the  square, 
at  right  angles  to  Madame  Marion's  door.  The 
square  is  a  point  at  which  several  roads  and  several 
streets  converge.  There  is  a  covered  market  there, 
and  opposite  the  chateau,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
square, — which  is  neither  paved  nor  macadamized, 
so  that  the  rain  hollows  out  little  ravines, — extends 
a  magnificent  promenade  called  the  Avenue  of  Sighs. 
Is  it  90  called  in  honor  of  or  by  way  of  rebuke  to  the 
women  of  the  town?  That  ambiguous  appellation 
is  doubtless  an  example  of  provincial  wit.  Two 
beautiful  cross-paths,  bordered  by  old  lindens  with 
very  dense  foliage,  lead  from  the  square  to  a 
circular  boulevard  which  forms  another  promenade, 
neglected  like  all  promenades  in  the  provinces, 
which  are  much  more  noticeable  for  their  heaps  of 
undisturbed  filth  than  for  throngs  of  animated 
promenaders  like  those  in  Paris. 
(47) 


48  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

At  the  height  of  the  discussion,  to  which  Achilla 
Pigoult,  with  the  self-possession  and  courage  of  an 
orator  of  the  real  Parliament,  imparted  all  the 
elements  of  drama,  four  persons  were  walking  in  a 
row  under  the  lindens  of  one  of  the  cross-paths  of 
the  Avenue  of  Sighs.  When  they  reached  the 
square,  they  stopped  by  common  accord  and  looked 
at  the  people  of  Arcis  who  were  buzzing  about  in 
front  of  the  chateau,  like  bees  returning  to  their 
hive  at  night.  Those  four  persons  were  the  whole 
ministerial  party  of  Arcis:  the  sub-prefect,  the  king's 
attorney,  his  deputy,  and  Monsieui  Martener,  the 
examining  magistrate.  The  president  of  the  court 
was,  as  we  already  know,  a  partisan  of  the  elder 
branch  and  a  devoted  adherent  of  the  house  of 
Cinq-Cygne. 

"No,  I  don't  understand  the  government!"  the 
sub-prefect  repeated,  pointing  to  the  groups,  which 
were  growing  more  numerous.  "At  such  a  serious 
crisis  I  am  left  without  instructions!" 

"You  resemble  many  other  people  in  that 
respect!"  observed  Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet  with  a 
smile. 

"What  have  you  against  the  government?" 
asked  the  king's  attorney. 

"The  ministry  is  sadly  embarrassed,"  said  young 
Martener;  "they  know  that  this  arrondissement 
belongs  to  the  Kellers  in  a  certain  sense,  and  they 
will  be  very  careful  not  to  run  counter  to  them. 
They  have  to  deal  cautiously  with  the  only  man 
who  can  be  compared  to  Monsieur  de  Talleyrand. 


THE   AVENUE    OF  SIGHS 


''Well,  Monsieur  Groslicrf'  said  the  sub-prefect, 
zvalking  forxvard  to  talk  luith  the  commissioner  a 
few  steps  azuay  from  his  three  companions. 

"Monsieur"  replied  the  commissioner  of  police  in 
a  loio  totie,  "Monsieur  le  prefet  bade  me  tell  you  a 
sad  piece  of  nezvs :  Monsieur  le  Vicomte  Charles 
Keller  is  dead." 


Cartel^* 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  49 

You  must  send  the  commissioner  of  police  to  the 
Comte  de  Gondrevilie,  not  to  the  prefect," 

"Meanwhile,"  said  Frederic  Marest,  "the  opposi- 
tion is  bestirring  itself,  and  you  see  what  Colonel 
Giguet's  influence  is!  Our  mayor,  Monsieur  Beau- 
visage,  is  presiding  at  this  preliminary  meeting." 

"After  all,"  said  Olivier  Vinet  slyly  to  the  sub- 
prefect,  "Simon  Giguet  is  a  friend  of  yours,  and  a 
former  schoolfellow;  he  will  join  Monsieur  Thiers's 
party  and  you  risk  nothing  by  favoring  his  election." 

"The  present  ministry  may  turn  me  out  before  it 
falls.  We  know  when  we  are  removed,  but  we 
never  know  when  we  are  to  be  reappointed,"  said 
Antonin  Goulard. 

"Collinet,  the  grocer! — He  makes  the  sixty- 
seventh  elector  who  has  gone  into  Colonel 
Giguet's,"  said  Monsieur  Martener,  who  exercised 
his  profession  of  examining  magistrate  by  counting 
the  electors. 

"If  Charles  Keller  is  the  ministerial  candidate," 
continued  Antonin  Goulard,  "they  ought  to  have 
notified  me,  and  not  have  given  Simon  Giguet  time 
to  work  on  people's  minds." 

The  four  walked  slowly  along  to  the  point  where 
the  boulevard  ends  and  the  public  square  begins. 

"There's  Monsieur  Groslier!"  said  the  magistrate, 
pointing  to  a  man  on  horseback. 

The  horseman  in  question  was  the  commissioner 
of  police;  he  spied  the  government  of  Arcis  assem- 
bled in  a  body  on  the  public  highway,  and  he  rode 
toward  the  four  functionaries. 


50  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Well,  Monsieur  Groslier?"  said  the  sub-prefect, 
walking  forward  to  talk  with  the  comnaissioner  a  few 
steps  away  from  his  three  companions. 

"Monsieur,"  replied  the  commissioner  of  police  in 
a  low  tone,  "Monsieur  le  prefet  bade  me  tell  you  a 
sad  piece  of  news:  Monsieur  le  Vicomte  Charles 
Keller  is  dead.  The  news  reached  Paris  the  day 
before  yesterday  by  telegraph  and  the  two  Messieurs 
Keller,  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  and  the  Marechale 
de  Carigliano,  the  whole  family,  in  fact,  have  been 
at  Gondreville  since  yesterday.  Abd-el-Kader  has 
resumed  offensive  operations  in  Africa  and  the  war 
is  being  carried  on  with  great  fury.  The  poor 
young  man  was  one  of  the  first  victims  of  the 
renewal  of  hostilities.  You  will  very  soon  receive 
confidential  instructions  concerning  the  election, 
Monsieur  le  prefet  told  me." 

"From  whom?"  inquired  the  sub-prefect. 

"If  I  knew,  it  would  no  longer  be  confidential," 
replied  the  commissioner.  "Monsieur  le  prefet  him- 
self does  not  know.  It  will  be  a  secret  between 
yourself  and  the  minister,  he  told  me." 

And  he  rode  on,  after  the  exultant  sub-prefect 
had  placed  his  finger  on  his  lips  to  enjoin  silence. 

"Well,  what  newsfrom  the  prefecture?"  inquired 
the  king's  attorney,  when  Antonin  Goulard  returned 
to  the  group  he  had  left. 

"Nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory,"  he  replied 
mysteriously,  walking  fast  as  if  he  proposed  to 
leave  the  other  magistrates. 

As  they  walked  toward  the  centre  of  the  square 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  5 1 

in  silence,  for  tiie  three  magistrates  were  somewhat 
annoyed  by  the  sub-prefect's  assumed  haste, 
Monsieur  Martener  spied  old  Madame  Beauvisage, 
Phileas's  mother,  surrounded  by  almost  all  of  the 
bourgeois  on  the  square,  to  whom  she  seemed  to  be 
telling  a  story.  A  solicitor  named  Sinot,  who  was 
employed  by  the  royalists  of  the  arrondissement  of 
Arcis  and  had  abstained  from  attending  the  Giguet 
meeting,  left  the  group  and  ran  to  Madame 
Marion's  door,  where  he  rang  violently. 

"What's  the  matter?"  said  Frederic  Marest, 
dropping  his  monocle  and  informing  the  sub-prefect 
and  the  examining  magistrate  of  that  circum- 
stance. 

"The  matter  is,  messieurs,"  replied  Antonin 
Goulard,  seeing  no  further  advantage  to  be  gained 
by  keeping  a  secret  which  would  soon  be  divulged 
in  another  quarter,  "the  matter  is  that  Charles 
Keller  has  been  killed  in  Africa,  and  that  that 
occurrence  makes  Simon  Giguet's  chances  very 
promising!  You  know  Arcis,  Charles  Keller  was 
the  only  possible  ministerial  candidate.  Any  other 
will  find  all  the  cross-roads  patriotism  opposed  to 
him." 

"The  idea  of  such  an  idiot  being  elected!" 
laughed  Olivier  Vinet. 

The  deputy  king's  attorney,  then  about  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  the  eldest  son  of  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  procureurs-general,  whose  accession  to 
power  dates  from  the  Revolution  of  July,  very 
naturally  owed  his  position  in  the  public  prosecutor's 


52  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

ofifice  to  his  father's  influence.  That  procureur- 
general,  who  represents  the  town  of  Provins  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  to  this  day,  is  one  of  the 
buttresses  of  the  Centre.  And  so  the  son,  whose 
mother  was  a  Mademoiselle  de  Chargeboeuf,  had  a 
self-assurance,  in  the  performance  of  his  duties  as 
well  as  in  his  general  bearing,  which  revealed  the 
father's  influence.  He  expressed  his  opinion  of 
men  and  things  without  ceremony,  for  he  hoped  not 
to  remain  long  in  the  town  of  Arcis  but  to  become 
king's  attorney  at  Versailles,  an  infallible  stepping- 
stone  to  a  post  in  Paris.  The  free-and-easy  manner 
of  young  Vinet  and  the  sort  of  judicial  conceit  due 
to  the  certainty  of  making  his  way,  were  the  more 
annoying  to  Frederic  Marest  in  that  his  young 
subordinate's  disrespectful  manners  were  supported 
by  the  most  biting  wit.  The  king's  attorney,  a 
man  of  forty,  who  had  spent  six  years  under  the 
Restoration  working  his  way  up  to  first  deputy  and 
whom  the  Revolution  of  July  had  left  in  oblivion  in 
the  prosecutor's  office  at  Arcis,  although  he  had 
eighteen  thousand  francs  a  year,  was  in  a  constant 
state  of  perplexity  between  the  wish  to  stand  well 
in  the  eyes  of  a  procureur-general  who  might 
become  Keeper  of  the  Seals  as  so  many  lawyer- 
deputies  have  done,  and  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
his  dignity.  Olivier  Vinet  was  thin  and  fair,  with 
an  insipid  face,  set  off  by  two  little  green  eyes  full 
of  malice;  he  was  one  of  those  scoffing  youths, 
addicted  to  dissipation,  who  have  the  art  of  assum- 
ing  the  stiff,  haughty,  pedantic   air    with    which 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  53 

magistrates  arm  themselves  when  they  are  once  upon 
the  bench.  The  tall,  stout,  heavy,  solemn  king's 
attorney  had  invented  within  a  few  days  a  system 
by  means  of  which  he  got  even  with  the  irritating 
Vinet:  he  treated  him  as  a  father  treats  a  spoiled 
child. 

"Olivier,"  he  replied,  putting  his  hand  on  his 
deputy's  shoulder,  "a  man  of  your  breadth  of  vision 
should  consider  that  Master  Giguet  may  be  chosen 
deputy.  You  would  have  said  your  say  as  plainly 
before  everybody  in  Arcis  as  among  friends." 

"There's  something  against  Giguet,"  observed 
Monsieur  Martener. 

That  excellent  young  man,  rather  sluggish,  but 
of  great  capacity, — he  was  the  son  of  a  physician 
at  Provins, — owed  his  place  to  Vinet,  the  procureur- 
general,  who  was  for  a  long  while  an  advocate  at 
Provins,  and  who  was  the  patron  of  the  people  of 
that  town  as  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  was  the 
patron  of  the  people  of  Arcis. — (See  Pierrette.) 

"What  is  it?"  said  Antonin. 

"The  cross-roads  patriotism  is  very  bitter  against 
a  man  who  is  forced  on  the  electors,"  replied  the 
magistrate;  "but  when  it's  a  question  among  the 
good  people  of  Arcis,  of  exalting  one  of  their  equals, 
jealousy  and  envy  will  be  stronger  than  patriotism." 

"That  is  very  simple,"  said  the  king's  attorney, 
"but  it's  very  true. — If  you  can  muster  fifty  minis- 
terial votes,  you  will  probably  find  that  you  can 
control  the  election  here,"  he  added,  glancing  at 
Antonin  Goulard. 


54  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"All  we  need  to  do  is  to  set  up  another  candidate 
of  the  same  kind  against  Simon  Giguet,"  said 
Vinet. 

The  sub-prefect  could  not  restrain  a  gleam  of 
satisfaction  which  escaped  none  of  his  three  com- 
panions, with  whom,  by  the  way,  he  was  on 
excellent  terms.  Bachelors  all  and  all  well-to-do, 
they  had  formed  an  alliance,  without  any  sort  of 
premeditation,  as  a  protection  against  the  tedium  of 
life  in  the  provinces.  The  three  functionaries  had 
already  noticed  the  species  of  jealousy  which  Giguet 
aroused  in  Goulard,  and  which  a  word  or  two 
concerning  their  antecedents  will  explain.  The  son 
of  a  former  huntsman  in  the  employ  of  the  Simeuse 
family,  enriched  by  the  purchase  of  national 
property,  Antonin  Goulard  was,  like  Simon  Giguet, 
a  son  of  Arcis.  Old  Goulard,  his  father,  left  the 
abbey  of  Valpreux:— a  corruption  of  Val-des-Preux — 
to  live  in  Arcis  after  his  wife's  death,  and  he  sent 
his  son  Antonin  to  the  imperial  college,  where 
Colonel  Giguet  had  already  placed  his  son  Simon. 
The  two  compatriots,  having  been  college-mates, 
studied  law  together  in  Paris,  and  their  friendship 
extended  to  their  youthful  diversions.  They 
promised  to  assist  each  other  to  make  their  way,  as 
they  embarked  upon  different  careers;  but  fate 
willed  that  they  should  be  rivals. 

Notwithstanding  his  genuine  advantages,  notwith- 
standing the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  which  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville  had  obtained  for  Goulard  in 
lieu  of  promotion,  and  which  shone  resplendent  in 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  55 

his  buttonhole,  the  offer  of  his  heart  and  his  office 
had  been  unconditionally  declined  when  Antonin 
addressed  himself  secretly  to  Madame  Beauvisage, 
six  months  before  the  day  on  which  this  story 
begins.  No  step  of  that  sort  can  be  kept  secret  in 
the  provinces.  The  king's  attorney,  Frederic 
Marest,  whose  fortune,  buttonhole  decoration  and 
official  position  were  equal  to  those  of  Antonin 
Goulard,  had,  three  years  before,  met  with  a  similar 
refusal,  based  upon  the  difference  in  age.  Thus  the 
sub-prefect  and  the  king's  attorney  confined  them- 
selves to  the  strictest  requirements  of  courtesy  in 
their  intercourse  with  the  Beauvisages,  and  laughed 
at  them  between  themselves. 

During  their  walk  they  had  both  divined  and 
communicated  to  each  other  the  secret  of  Simon 
Giguet's  candidacy,  for  they  had  detected  Madame 
Marion's  hopes  on  the  preceding  day.  Equally 
possessed  by  the  feeling  that  animates  the  gardener' s 
dog,  they  were  both  secretly  desirous  to  prevent 
the  advocate  from  marrying  the  rich  heiress  whose 
hand  had  been  refused  them. 

"God  grant  that  I  can  control  the  election,"  said 
the  sub-prefect,  "and  that  the  Comte  de  Gondre- 
ville  will  have  me  appointed  prefect,  for  I  am  no 
more  anxious  than  you  are  to  remain  here  although 
I  am  of  Arcis!" 

"You  have  a  most  excellent  opportunity  to  get 
yourself  chosen  deputy,  my  chief,"  said  Olivier 
Vinet  to  Marest.  "Come  to  see  my  father,  who 
will  doubtless  be  at  Provins  in  a  few  hours,  and  we 


56  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

will  ask  him  to  have  you  made  the  ministerial 
candidate." 

"Stay  here!"  said  Antonin;  "the  ministry  has 
views  of  its  own  concerning  the  election  at  Arcis." 

"Pshaw!  there  are  two  ministries:  the  one  that 
thinks  about  carrying  elections  and  the  one  that 
thinks  about  profiting  by  them,"  said  Vinet. 

"Let  us  not  increase  Antonin's  embarrassment," 
said  Marest,  winking  at  his  deputy. 

The  four  officials,  having  by  this  time  reached  a 
point  on  the  square  beyond  the  Avenue  of  Sighs, 
walked  on  as  far  as  the  Mulct  inn,  as  they  saw 
Poupart  coming  from  Madame  Marion's.  At  that 
moment  the  porte  coch^re  of  the  house  vomited 
forth  the  sixty-seven  conspirators. 

"So  you  have  been  to  that  house,  have  you?" 
said  Antonin  Goulard,  pointing  to  the  walls  of  the 
Marion  garden  which  is  on  the  Brienne  road  opposite 
the  stables  of  the  Mulet. 

"I  shan't  go  there  again.  Monsieur  le  sous- 
prefet,"  replied  the  innkeeper;  "Monsieur  Keller's 
son  is  dead  and  there's  nothing  more  for  me  to  do. 
God  has  undertaken  to  make  the  road  clear." 

"Well,  Pigoult?"  said  Vinet,  as  the  only  dis- 
cordant element  at  the  Marion  meeting  approached. 

"Well,"  replied  the  notary,  upon  whose  brow  the 
still  undried  perspiration  bore  witness  to  the  efforts 
he  had  made,  "Sinot  came  in  and  told  us  some  news 
that  brought  all  their  minds  together!  With  the 
exception  of  five  dissidents — Poupart,  my  grand- 
father, Mollot,  Sinot  and  myself, — they  all  swore,  as 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  57 

they  did  in  the  old  days  at  the  Tennis-Court,  to  use 
every  effort  to  secure  the  triumph  of  Simon  Giguet, 
of  whom  I  have  made  a  deadly  enemy.  Oh!  we 
were  well  warmed  up!  However,  I  have  induced 
the  Giguets  to  launch  invectives  at  the  Gondrevilles, 
so  the  old  count  will  be  on  my  side.  No  later  than 
to-morrow  he  shall  know  what  the  self-styled 
patriots  of  Arcis  have  said  about  him,  about  his 
corruption,  his  infamous  acts,  in  order  to  throw  off 
his  protection,  or,  as  they  express  it,  his  yoke." 

"Are  they  unanimous?"  said  Olivier  Vinet, 
smiling. 

"To-day,"  replied  Monsieur  Martener. 

"Oh!"  cried  Pigoult,  "the  general  feeling  among 
the  electors  is  that  a  man  from  the  province  should 
be  elected.  Whom  do  you  propose  to  set  up  in 
opposition  to  Simon  Giguet,  a  man  who  has  just 
spent  two  hours  explaining  the  word  progress?'^ 

"We  will  go  to  see  old  Grevin!"  cried  the  sub- 
prefect. 

"He  has  no  ambition,"  replied  Pigoult;  "but  we 
must  consult  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  first  of  all. 
Look  yonder,"  he  added,  "see  how  obsequiously 
Simon  shows  out  that  gilded  blockhead  of  a  Beauvi- 
sage!" 

He  pointed  to  the  advocate,  who  held  the  mayor's 
arm  and  was  whispering  in  his  ear. 

Beauvisage  waved  his  hand  to  right  and  left, 
saluting  the  inhabitants,  who  gazed  at  him  with  the 
deference  that  provincials  manifest  for  the  richest 
man  of  their  town. 


58  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"He  lavishes  attentions  on  him  as  father  and 
mayor!"*  said  Vinet. 

"Oh!  he'll  waste  his  time  cosseting  him," 
replied  Pigoult,  grasping  the  hidden  meaning  of  the 
deputy-attorney's  play  upon  words,  "Cecile's  hand 
isn't  at  her  father's  disposal  or  her  mother's  either." 

"At  whose,  then,  pray?" 

"My  former  master's.  If  Simon  should  be  elected 
Deputy  from  Arcis,  he  would  not  have  taken  the 
citadel." 

Despite  all  that  the  sub-prefect  and  Frederic 
Marest  could  say,  Pigoult  refused  to  explain  that 
remark,  which  justly  seemed  to  them  big  with 
events  to  come,  and  which  disclosed  more  or  less 
familiarity  with  the  plans  of  the  Beauvisage  family. 

All  Arcis  was  in  commotion,  not  only  because  of 
the  fatal  news  that  had  stricken  the  Gondreviile 
family,  but  also  because  of  the  momentous  resolution 
formed  at  the  Giguet  mansion,  where,  at  that 
moment,  Madame  Marion  and  her  three  servants 
were  hard  at  work  replacing  everything  in  position, 
in  order  to  be  ready  to  receive  their  regular  guests 
during  the  evening,  as  curiosity  was  likely  to  attract 
them  in  large  numbers. 

Champagne  has  the  appearance  of  a  poor  province 
and  is  little  else  in  fact.  Its  aspect  is  generally 
depressing;  the  country  is  perfectly  flat.  As  you 
pass  through  the  villages,  and  even  the  large  towns, 
you  see  nothing  but  wretched  structures  of  wood  or 

*  "Comme  ptre  et  mairt"  says  Vinet,  the  sound  being  ttie  same  as  if  >ie  iiad 
said:  comme  pert  et  mire,  as  father  and  mother. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  59 

clay;  the  most  luxurious  are  of  brick.  Stone  is 
little  used  except  in  public  buildings.  Thus  the 
chateau,  the  court  house  and  the  church  are  the 
only  stone  structures  in  Arcis.  Nevertheless 
Champagne,  or,  if  you  prefer,  the  departments  of 
the  Aube,  the  Marne  and  Haute-Marne,  in  addition 
to  their  rich  endowment  of  vineyards  whose  fame  is 
world-wide,  are  full  of  flourishing  industrial  estab- 
lishments. To  say  nothing  of  the  manufactures  of 
Rheims,  almost  all  of  the  hosiery-making  of  France, 
an  important  industry,  is  carried  on  about  Troyes. 
The  country  for  ten  leagues  around  is  thickly 
peopled  with  mechanics  whose  trades  you  can 
discover  through  the  open  doors  as  you  pass  through 
the  villages.  These  mechanics  are  employed  by  fac- 
tors, and  these  deal  with  a  speculator  called  a  manu- 
facturer. This  latter  sells  to  the  establishments  in 
Paris,  often  to  simple  retailers  of  caps  and  hosiery, 
who  generally  have  signs  over  their  doors  bearing 
the  words:  Hosiery  Manufactory.  But  not  one  of 
them  manufactures  a  cap  or  a  stocking  or  a  sock. 
The  hosiery  comes  from  Champagne  to  a  great 
extent,  although  there  are  in  Paris  some  few 
mechanics  who  are  rivals  of  the  Champenois  in 
that  regard.  This  middleman  between  the  producer 
and  consumer  is  a  plague-spot  not  confined  to  the 
hosiery  industry:  he  is  found  in  most  industries  and 
increases  the  price  of  merchandise  by  the  amount 
of  the  profit  demanded  by  him.  To  level  these 
costly  partitions  which  injure  the  sale  of  the  products 
of  industry,  would  be  a  noble  undertaking  which. 


60  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

by  virtue  of  its  results,  would  rise  to  the  height  of  a 
political  achievement.  In  truth  all  manufacturing 
would  gain  by  it,  by  establishing  at  home  the 
profitable  market  so  necessary  to  wage  a  successful 
industrial  war  with  the  foreigner;  a  war  quite  as 
murderous  as  that  carried  on  with  firearms.  But 
the  destruction  of  an  abuse  of  this  nature  would 
not  bring  to  modern  philanthropists  the  glory  and 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  interminable  polemics 
in  favor  of  the  hollow  fads  of  negro  emancipation 
and  the  penitentiary  system;  and  so  the  intermediary 
trade  of  these  bankers  in  merchandise  will  continue 
to  be  a  burden  to  production  and  consumption  for  a 
long  time  to  come. 

In  France,  in  this  intelligent  country,  it  seems 
that  to  simplify  means  to  destroy.  The  Revolu- 
tion of  1789  is  still  an  object  of  fear.  We  can 
judge  from  the  industrial  energy  exhibited  by  a  prov- 
ince to  which  nature  is  ungenial,  what  progress 
agriculture  would  make  there  if  capital  would 
consent  to  fertilize  the  soil,  which  is  no  more 
ungrateful  in  Champagne  than  in  Scotland,  where 
capital  has  produced  marvelous  results.  And  on 
the  day  when  agriculture  shall  have  vanquished  the 
unfertile  portions  of  those  departments,  when 
manufacturing  shall  have  sown  a  little  capital  upon 
the  chalky  soil  of  Champagne,  its  prosperity  will 
increase  threefold.  At  present  the  province  knows 
not  what  luxury  means,  the  homes  contain  only 
the  bare  necessaries  of  life;  but  English  comfort  will 
find  its  way  into  them,  money  will  obtain  that  rapid 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  6l 

circulation  which  is  half  of  wealth  and  which  is 
already  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  in  many  sluggish 
districts  of  France.  Writers,  public  officials,  the 
Church  from  its  pulpits,  the  press  in  its  columns, 
all  those  to  whom  chance  gives  the  power  to  exert 
influence  upon  the  masses,  should  say  again  and 
again:  to  hoard  money  is  a  social  crime!  The 
unintelligent  economy  of  the  provinces  arrests  the 
life-blood  of  industry  and  impairs  the  national  health. 
Thus  the  little  town  of  Arcis,  without  free  transit, 
without  transportation  facilities,  apparently  doomed 
to  stand  absolutely  still,  is,  relatively  speaking,  a 
wealthy  town  and  overflowing  with  capital  slowly 
amassed  in  the  manufacture  of  hosiery. 

Monsieur  Phileas  Beauvisage  was  the  Alexander 
or,  if  you  prefer,  the  Attila  of  that  state  of  affairs. 
This  is  how  that  honorable  manufacturer  had 
acquired  his  supremacy  over  cotton.  The  sole 
remaining  child  of  the  Beauvisage  family,  who  were 
tenants  of  the  magnificent  farm  of  Bellache,  belong- 
ing to  the  Gondreville  estate,  his  parents  made  a 
sacrifice  to  save  him  from  the  conscription  in  1811, 
by  purchasing  a  substitute.  Thereafter  Madame 
Beauvisage,  having  become  a  widow,  succeeded,  by 
favor  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville's  influence,  in 
rescuing  her  only  son  from  enrollment  in  the  guards 
of  honor,  in  181 3.  At  that  time  Phileas,  being  then 
twenty-one  years  old,  had  already  been  engaged 
for  three  years  in  the  pacific  occupation  of  making 
hosiery  and  caps.  As  the  lease  of  Bellache  was 
about  to  expire,  the  old  woman  declined  to  renew 


62  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

it.  She  had  sufficient  employment  for  her  old  age 
in  looking  after  the  investment  of  her  property. 
In  order  to  avoid  any  possible  trouble  in  her  declin- 
ing years,  she  insisted  upon  settling  her  husband's 
estate  under  the  auspices  of  MaTtre  Grevin,  the 
notary  of  Arcis,  although  her  son  had  not  asked  for 
an  accounting;  the  result  was  that  she  owed  him 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs.  The 
good  woman  did  not  sell  her  real  estate,  most  of 
which  came  from  the  unfortunate  Michu,  the  former 
steward  of  the  Simeuse  family;  she  handed  her  son 
the  amount  in  cash,  advising  him  to  negotiate  for 
the  purchase  of  the  establishment  of  his  employer. 
Monsieur  Pigoult,  son  of  the  old  justice  of  the  peace, 
whose  affairs  were  in  such  a  bad  way  that  there 
was  a  suspicion,  as  we  have  already  said,  that  his 
death  was  self-inflicted.  Phileas  Beauvisage,  a 
prudent  youth  with  great  respect  for  his  mother, 
soon  arranged  matters  with  his  employer;  and  as  he 
inherited  from  his  parents  the  bump  which  phrenolo- 
gists call  the  bump  of  acquisitiveness,  his  youthful 
ardor  was  all  directed  upon  the  business,  which 
seemed  to  him  magnificent,  and  which  he  deter- 
mined to  increase  by  speculation.  The  name 
Phileas,  which  may  seem  extraordinary,  is  one  of 
the  innumerable  oddities  due  to  the  Revolution. 
Being  retainers  of  the  Simeuse  family  and  conse- 
quently good  Catholics,  the  Beauvisages  desired  of 
course  that  their  child  should  be  baptized.  Abbe 
Goujet,  the  cure  of  Cinq-Cygne,  being  consulted 
by  the  farmers,  advised  them  to  take  Phileas  as 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  63 

their  son's  patron  saint,  the  Greek  name  being 
calculated  to  satisfy  the  municipality;  for  the  boy 
was  born  at  a  time  when  children  were  inscribed  on 
the  civil  registers  under  the  strange  names  of  the 
Republican  calendar. 

In  1814  the  hosiery  trade,  which  inordinary  times 
depends  little  on  chance,  was  compelled  to  follow 
all  the  fluctuations  in  the  price  of  cotton.  The 
price  of  cotton  depended  on  the  triumph  or  defeat  of 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  whose  adversaries,  the 
English  generals,  were  saying  in  Spain:  "The  city 
is  taken;  put  up  the  prices!"  Pigoult,  young 
Phileas's  former  employer,  furnished  his  rural 
workmen  with  the  raw  material.  When  he  sold 
his  establishment  to  young  Beauvisage,  he  owned  a 
large  stock  of  cotton  purchased  at  the  highest 
price,  while  quantities  were  being  brought  into  the 
Empire  from  Lisbon  at  six  sous  the  kilogram,  by 
virtue  of  the  Emperor's  famous  decree.  The 
reaction  in  price  following  the  introduction  of  that 
cotton  caused  the  death  of  Pigoult,  Achille's  father, 
and  was  the  beginning  of  Phileas's  fortune;  for  he, 
far  from  losing  his  head  like  his  employer,  reduced 
the  average  price  of  his  cotton  by  buying  at  a  low 
figure  twice  the  quantity  laid  in  by  his  predecessor. 
That  simple  expedient  enabled  Phileas  to  increase 
his  output  threefold  and  to  pose  as  a  benefactor  of 
his  workmen,  while  he  was  able  to  place  his  product 
in  Paris  and  throughout  France  at  a  profit,  when 
the  most  fortunate  of  his  rivals  were  selling  at 
cost. 


64  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Early  in  1814  PhUeas  had  emptied  his  store- 
houses. The  prospect  of  war  on  French  territory, 
with  the  probability  that  its  burden  would  be  felt 
principally  in  Champagne,  made  him  cautious;  he 
did  no  manufacturing,  and  held  himself  in  readiness 
for  any  emergency,  with  all  his  capital  turned  into 
gold.  At  that  period  the  custom-house  lines  were 
broken  down.  Napoleon  had  found  that  he  could 
not  do  without  his  thirty  thousand  customs  officers 
for  the  struggle  on  French  territory.  Cotton, 
smuggled  in  through  the  innumerable  gaps  made  in 
the  hedge  of  our  frontiers,  found  its  way  to  all  the 
markets  of  France.  One  cannot  imagine  how 
cunning  and  alert  cotton  was  in  those  days,  nor 
with  what  avidity  the  English  seized  upon  a  country 
where  cotton  stockings  were  worth  six  francs  a 
pair  and  cambric  shirts  were  a  luxury!  The 
wholesalers  of  the  second  class,  the  principal 
operatives,  relying  on  Napoleon's  genius,  had 
bought  the  cotton  that  came  from  Spain.  They 
manoeuvred  in  the  hope  of  imposing  their  own  terms 
later  on  the  dealers  in  Paris.  Phileas  took  note  of 
those  facts.  Then,  when  Champagne  was  ravaged 
by  war,  he  took  up  a  position  between  the  French 
army  and  Paris.  After  every  defeat  he  called  upon 
the  small  manufacturers,  who  had  buried  their 
product  in  barrels,  the  silos  of  the  hosiery  trade; 
with  his  gold  in  his  hand  that  Cossack  of  the 
knitting-machine  purchased  from  village  to  village, 
below  the  cost  of  manufacture,  casks  full  of  mer- 
chandise  which   might  from   one   day  to  another 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS  6$ 

become  the  booty  of  the  enemy,  whose  feet  required 
to  be  protected  no  less  than  their  palates  to  be 
moistened.  Under  those  unhappy  circumstances, 
Phileas  displayed  an  activity  almost  equal  to  the 
Emperor's.  That  general  of  the  hosiery  trade  made 
the  campaign  of  1814  commercially  with  unknown 
heroism.  From  his  station  a  league  in  the  rear, 
while  the  general  rode  a  league  in  advance,  he 
triumphantly  arranged  a  corner  in  caps  and  cotton 
stockings,  while  the  Emperor  won  the  laurel  wreath 
of  immortality  in  defeat.  The  genius  was  equal  on 
both  sides,  although  it  was  put  forth  in  different 
spheres,  and  one  thought  of  covering  heads  in  as 
great  number  as  the  other  caused  them  to  fall. 
Being  compelled  to  provide  means  of  transportation 
in  order  to  save  his  hogsheads  of  hosiery  and  caps, 
which  he  stored  in  a  faubourg  of  Paris,  Phileas 
frequently  made  requisitions  of  horses  and  vans,  as 
if  the  safety  of  the  Empire  were  at  stake.  Indeed, 
was  not  the  majesty  of  commerce  on  a  par  with  the 
majesty  of  Napoleon.'  Had  not  the  English  mer- 
chants, after  taking  all  Europe  into  their  pay, 
brought  to  terms  the  Colossus  who  threatened  their 
shops  ? 

When  the  Emperor  abdicated  at  Fontainebleau, 
the  triumphant  Phileas  had  succeeded  in  gaining 
absolute  control  of  the  market.  By  skilful  manoeu- 
vring he  encouraged  the  depreciation  of  cotton,  and 
doubled  his  fortune  at  a  time  when  the  luckiest 
manufacturers  were  those  who  disposed  of  their 
merchandise  at  only  fifty  per  cent  loss.  He  returned 
5 


66  THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

to  Arcis  with  three  hundred  thousand  francs,  half 
of  which,  invested  in  the  public  funds  at  sixty, 
produced  fifteen  thousand  francs  a  year.  One 
hundred  thousand  francs  were  employed  to  double 
the  capital  invested  in  his  business.  The  balance 
was  expended  in  building,  decorating  and  furnishing 
a  fine  house  on  Place  du  Pont  at  Arcis. 

On  the  return  of  the  triumphant  hosiery  manu- 
facturer, he  naturally  selected  Maltre  Grevin  for  his 
confidential  adviser.  The  notary  had  an  only 
daughter,  twenty  years  old  and  unmarried.  Grevin's 
father-in-law,  for  forty  years  a  physician  at  Arcis, 
was  still  alive.  Grevin,  who  was  a  widower,  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  extent  of  Mere  Beauvisage's 
fortune.  He  thought  highly  of  the  energy  and 
capability  of  a  young  man  with  sufficient  nerve  to 
make  the  campaign  of  i8i4as  Phileas  did.  Severine 
Grevin  had  her  mother's  fortune,  sixty  thousand 
francs,  for  her  dowry.  What  could  old  Varlet  be 
expected  to  leave  Severine?  an  equal  amount  at  the 
most.  Grevin  was  then  fifty  years  of  age;  he  was 
in  fear  of  death;  he  could  not  see  his  way  clear, 
under  the  Restoration,  to  find  a  husband  to  his 
taste  for  his  daughter,  for  he  was  ambitious  for  her. 
Under  the  circumstances  he  was  shrewd  enough  to 
lead  Phileas  to  ask  for  his  daughter's  hand. 
Severine  Grevin,  a  well-bred  young  woman  and 
comely,  was  esteemed  one  of  the  desirable  partis 
of  Arcis.  Moreover,  an  alliance  with  the  most 
intimate  friend  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville, 
senator  and  peer  of  France,  could  bring  naught  but 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  67 

honor  to  the  son  of  a  farmer  of  Gondreville;  the 
widow  Beauvisage  would  have  made  a  sacrifice  to 
bring  it  about;  but,  when  she  learned  of  her  son's 
success,  she  abstained  from  bestowing  a  marriage 
portion  upon  him;  a  prudent  reserve  which  was 
imitated  by  the  notary.  Thus  was  consummated 
the  union  of  the  son  of  a  farmer,  formerly  so 
faithful  to  the  Simeuses,  with  the  daughter  of  one  of 
their  deadliest  enemies.  It  was  perhaps  the  only 
application  ever  made  of  Louis  the  Eighteenth's 
maxim:   "Union  and  oblivion." 

About  the  time  of  the  second  return  of  the  Bour- 
bons, Monsieur  Varlet,  the  old  physician,  died  at 
the  age  of  seventy-six,  leaving  two  hundred 
thousand  francs  in  gold  in  his  cellar,  in  addition  to 
his  real  estate,  valued  at  an  equal  sum.  Thus,  in 
1816,  Phileas  and  his  wife  possessed  thirty  thou- 
sand francs  a  year  outside  of  the  amount  invested 
in  the  business;  for  Grevin  wished  to  put  his 
daughter's  money  in  real  estate,  and  Beauvisage 
made  no  objection.  The  amount  received  by 
Severine  Grevin  as  her  grandfather's  heir  yielded 
barely  fifteen  thousand  francs  a  year,  notwithstand- 
ing the  advantageous  opportunities  for  investment 
which  Grevin  selected  with  care. 

The  first  two  years  sufficed  to  convince  Grevin 
and  Madame  Beauvisage  of  Phileas's  utter  imbe- 
cility. The  keen  glance  of  commercial  greed  had 
seemed  to  the  old  notary  to  be  a  manifestation  of 
superior  mental  capacity,  just  as  he  had  mistaken 
youth  for  vigor  and  good  luck  for  business  talent. 


68  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Although  Phileas  knew  how  to  read  and  write  and 
cipher,  he  had  never  read  anything.  His  ignorance 
was  so  gross  that  it  was  impossible  to  have  the 
most  trivial  conversation  with  him;  he  would  pour 
out  a  deluge  of  commonplaces  with  an  affable  smile. 
But,  in  his  capacity  of  farmer's  son,  he  did  not  lack 
business  common  sense.  A  person  might  place 
before  him  a  clear,  precise,  comprehensible  proposi- 
tion, but  he  never  returned  the  compliment. 
Phileas  was  kind,  even  tender-hearted,  and  wept  at 
the  slightest  suggestion  of  pathos.  His  kindly  dis- 
position caused  him  to  feel  the  greatest  respect  for 
his  wife,  whose  superiority  aroused  in  him  the  most 
profound  admiration.  According  to  Phileas,  Seve- 
rine,  a  woman  with  ideas  of  her  own,  knew  every- 
thing. To  be  sure,  her  judgment  was  the  more 
unerring  because  she  consulted  her  father  on  all 
occasions.  And  then  she  possessed  great  decision 
of  character  which  tended  to  make  her  absolute 
mistress  in  her  own  house.  As  soon  as  that  result 
was  secured,  the  old  notary  had  less  regret,  seeing 
that  his  daughter  was  happy  by  virtue  of  a  domina- 
tion which  always  satisfies  women  of  that  charac- 
ter;— but  the  wife  remained! 

This,  so  the  story  goes,  is  what  the  wife  found: 
In  the  reaction  of  1815,  there  was  sent  to  Arcis 
as  sub-prefect  a  Vicomte  de  Chargeboeuf,  of  the 
poorer  branch,  appointed  through  the  influence  of 
the  Marquis  de  Cinq-Cygne,  with  whose  family  he 
was  connected.  That  young  man  held  the  office  of 
sub-prefect   for   five   years.     The   lovely  Madame 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  69 

Beauvisage  was  not,  it  was  said,  entirely  uncon- 
nected with  the  motives  of  the  viscount's  incum- 
bency of  that  sub-prefecture,  which  was  infinitely 
too  long  for  his  promotion.  Nevertheless,  let  us 
hasten  to  say  that  the  gossip  was  not  accompanied 
by  any  of  the  scandalous  incidents  which,  in  the 
provinces,  betray  passions  so  difficult  of  conceal- 
ment from  the  Arguses  of  a  small  town.  If 
Severine  loved  the  Vicomte  de  Chargeboeuf,  if  her 
love  was  returned,  it  was  all  straightforward  and 
honorable,  said  the  friends  of  the  Grevins  and 
Marions.  This  double  coterie  imposed  its  opinion 
on  the  whole  arrondissement;  but  the  Marions  and 
the  Grevins  had  no  influence  over  the  royalists, 
and  the  royalists  maintained  that  the  sub-prefect 
was  very  fortunate.  As  soon  as  the  Marquise  de 
Cinq-Cygne  heard  what  was  being  said  about  her 
kinsman  at  the  chateaux,  she  summoned  him  to 
Cinq-Cygne;  and  such  was  her  horror  of  all  those 
who  were  connected  nearly  or  distantly  with  the 
actors  in  the  judicial  drama  so  fatal  to  her  family, 
that  she  enjoined  upon  the  viscount  to  change  his 
place  of  residence.  She  secured  her  cousin's  appoint- 
ment to  the  sub-prefecture  of  Sancerre,  promising 
him  a  prefecture.  Some  shrewd  observers  claimed 
that  the  viscount  had  simulated  his  passion  in  order 
to  become  prefect,  for  he  was  well  aware  of  the 
marchioness's  hatred  of  the  name  of  Grevin. 
Others  noticed  coincidences  between  the  Vicomte 
de  Chargeboeuf's  appearances  at  Paris  and  Madame 
Beauvisage's  trips  to  the  capital,  which  were  made 


^0  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

upon  the  most  frivolous  pretexts.  An  impartial 
historian  would  be  sadly  embarrassed  to  form  an 
opinion  concerning  facts  shrouded  in  the  mysteries 
of  private  life.  A  single  circumstance  seemed  to 
justify  the  evil-speaking.  Cecile-Renee  Beauvisage 
was  born  in  1820,  about  the  time  when  Monsieur 
de  Chargeboeuf  left  the  sub-prefecture,  and  among 
the  names  borne  by  the  fortunate  sub-prefect  was 
the  name  of  Rene.  That  name  was  suggested  by 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  Cecile's  godfather.  If 
the  mother  had  remonstrated  against  her  daughter's 
receiving  the  name,  she  would  thereby  in  some  sort 
have  confirmed  the  current  suspicions.  As  the  world 
is  always  determined  to  be  right,  the  incident  was 
considered  an  exhibition  of  malice  on  the  part  of  the 
old  peer  of  France.  Madame  Keller,  who  was  the 
count's  daughter,  and  whose  name  was  Cecile,  was 
the  godmother.  As  for  the  personal  appearance  of 
Cecile-Renee  Beauvisage,  it  was  a  striking  fact  that, 
while  she  bore  no  resemblance  at  all  to  her  father  or 
mother,  she  eventually  became  the  living  image  of 
the  viscount,  whose  aristocratic  manners  she  also 
exhibited.  That  twofold  resemblance,  moral  and 
physical,  could  never  be  discovered  by  the  people 
of  Arcis,  where  the  viscount  was  no  more  seen. 
Severine  made  Phileas  happy  in  his  way.  He 
loved  good  cheer  and  the  comforts  of  life;  she  pro- 
vided the  most  exquisite  wines  for  him,  a  table 
worthy  of  a  bishop  and  directed  by  the  best  cook 
in  the  department;  but  all  without  display,  for  she 
kept  her  house  on  the  level  of  the  bourgeois  homes 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  7I 

of  Arcis.  It  was  a  common  remark  in  the  town 
that  you  should  dine  with  Madame  Beauvisage  and 
pass  the  evening  at  Madame  Marion's. 

The  preponderance  which  the  Restoration  gave  to 
the  Cinq-Cygne  family  in  the  arrondissement  of 
Arcis  had  naturally  drawn  tighter  the  bonds  be- 
tween all  the  families  in  the  province  who  were 
connected  with  the  criminal  prosecution  instituted 
apropos  of  the  abduction  of  Gondreville.  The 
Marions,  the  Grevins  and  the  Giguets  were  the 
more  closely  united  because  the  triumph  of  their 
opinions, — constitutional  so-called, — at  the  elections 
depended  upon  perfect  harmony  between  them. 
Severine  designedly  caused  Beauvisage  to  go  on 
with  the  manufacture  of  hosiery,  which  any  other 
than  he  would  have  given  up;  she  sent  him  to 
Paris  or  into  the  country  on  business.  Thus,  up  to 
1830,  Phileas,  making  good  use  of  his  bump  of 
acquisitiveness,  gained  every  year  a  sum  equal  to 
his  yearly  expenses  over  and  above  the  interest  on 
his  invested  funds,  carrying  on  his  trade  in  slippers^ 
to  employ  a  colloquial  expression.  The  various 
interests  and  investments  of  Monsieur  and  Madame 
Beauvisage,  capitalized  within  fifteen  years  by  the 
exertions  of  Monsieur  Grevin,  amounted  therefore  in 
1830  to  some  five  hundred  thousand  francs.  Such 
was,  in  fact,  at  that  time  the  amount  of  Cecile's 
dowry,  which  the  old  notary  caused  to  be  invested 
in  three  per  cents  at  fifty,  producing  thirty  thousand 
francs  a  year.  Thus  there  was  little  danger  that 
common  report  would  overestimate  the  fortune  of 


72  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  Beauvisages,  which  was  reckoned  at  eighty 
thousand  francs  a  year. 

In  1830  they  sold  their  hosiery  business  to  Jean 
Violette,  one  of  their  agents,  grandson  of  one  of  the 
principal  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  in  the 
Simeuse  affair,  and  they  then  invested  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale,  reckoned  at  three  hundred  thousand 
francs;  but  Monsieur  and  Madame  Beauvisage  had 
in  prospect  the  inheritances  of  old  Grevin  and  of 
old  farmer  Beauvisage's  wife,  each  of  whom  was 
supposed  to  have  between  fifteen  and  twenty 
thousand  francs  a  year.  The  great  provincial 
fortunes  are  the  product  of  time  multiplied  by 
economy.  Thirty  years  of  old  age  are  always  a 
good  investment.  After  giving  Cecile-Renee  a 
dowry  of  fifty  thousand  francs  a  year,  Monsieur  and 
Madame  Beauvisage  would  still  have  for  themselves 
these  two  inheritances,  amounting  to  thirty  thousand 
a  year,  and  their  house  at  Arcis.  If  the  Marquise 
de  Cinq-Cygne  were  dead,  Cecile  could  assuredly 
marry  the  young  marquis;  but  that  lady's  excellent 
health — she  was  still  young  and  almost  beautiful  at 
sixty — destroyed  that  hope,  assuming  that  it  had 
ever  entered  the  hearts  of  Grevin  and  his  daughter, 
as  some  people  maintained,  being  amazed  at  the  ill- 
success  of  suitors  as  eligible  as  the  sub-prefect 
and  the  king's  attorney. 

The  Beauvisage  house,  one  of  the  finest  in 
Arcis,  is  situated  on  the  Place  du  Pont,  on  the 
line  of  Rue  Vide-Bourse,  at  the  corner  of  Rue 
du    Pont,    which    runs   up   to   the   church   square. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS         73 

Although  it  has  neither  courtyard  nor  garden,  like 
many  provincial  houses,  it  is  quite  effective  not- 
withstanding the  execrable  taste  of  the  ornamenta- 
tion. The  door,  which  is  low  although  it  has  two 
wings,  opens  on  the  square.  The  windows  of  the 
ground  floor  command  a  view  of  the  Poste  inn  on 
the  street  side,  and,  on  the  side  of  the  square,  of  the 
picturesque  scenery  of  the  Aube,  which  begins  to  be 
navigable  below  the  bridge.  Above  the  bridge  is 
another  little  square,  on  which  Monsieur  Grevin 
Jives  and  where  the  Sezanne  road  begins.  Upon  the 
street  as  well  as  upon  the  square,  the  Beauvisage 
house,  being  neatly  painted  white,  has  the  effect  of 
being  built  of  stone.  The  height  of  the  blinds,  the 
exterior  decoration  of  the  windows  all  combine  to 
give  the  house  a  certain  distinction,  which  is 
heightened  by  the  generally  wretched  appearance 
of  the  houses  of  Arcis,  almost  all  of  which  are  built 
of  wood  and  covered  with  a  coat  of  plaster  intended 
to  imitate  the  solidity  of  stone.  Nevertheless  these 
houses  do  not  lack  a  certain  artlessness  from  the 
very  fact  that  each  architect  and  each  bourgeois  has 
done  his  best  to  solve  the  problem  presented  by  that 
method  of  building.  On  each  of  the  squares  which 
lie  at  each  end  of  the  bridge,  may  be  seen  a  type 
of  these  Champenois  edifices.  In  the  centre  of  the 
row  of  houses  at  the  left  of  the  Beauvisage  house, 
on  the  square,  is  the  modest  establishment  of  Jean 
Violette,  painted  wine-color  with  green  trimmings. 
Violette  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  grandson  of  the 
famous   farmer  of   Grouage,   one  of  the   principal 


74  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

witnesses  in  tlie  affair  of  the  abduction  of  tiie  senator, 
and  it  was  he  to  whom  Beau  visage,  is  1830,  had  sold 
his  business,  and  the  good-will  thereof,  and  to  whom, 
people  said,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  lending  money. 

The  bridge  of  Arcis  is  built  of  wood.  About  a 
hundred  metres  above  the  bridge,  the  river  is 
spanned  by  another  bridge  on  which  stands  a  water- 
mill  with  several  wheels.  The  space  between  the 
public  bridge  and  this  private  bridge  forms  a  great 
basin  on  whose  shores  are  a  number  of  large  houses. 
Through  an  open  space  and  over  the  roofs,  one  can 
see  the  eminence  upon  which  are  located  the 
chateau  of  Arcis,  its  gardens,  its  park,  its  enclosing 
walls  and  its  trees,  which  overlook  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Aube  and  the  sterile  fields  on  the  left  bank. 
The  plashing  of  the  Aube  as  it  flows  over  the  dam 
above  the  canal  of  the  mills,  the  music  of  the  wheels 
against  which  the  water  is  lashed  into  foam  and  falls 
back  into  the  basin,  forming  miniature  cascades 
there,  impart  animation  to  Rue  du  Pont  and  form  a 
striking  contrast  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  river 
below  the  bridge  between  the  garden  of  Monsieur 
Grevin,  whose  house  stands  at  the  corner  of  the 
bridge  on  the  left  bank,  and  the  harbor  on  the  right 
bank,  where  the  vessels  discharge  their  freights  in 
front  of  a  row  of  poor  but  not  unpicturesque 
buildings.  The  Aube  winds  away  in  the  distance 
among  sparse  or  thickly-growing  trees,  large  and 
small,  of  variegated  foliage,  according  to  the  whims 
of  the  riparian  proprietors.  The  exterior  of  the 
houses  is  so  varied  that  a  traveler  would  find  there 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  7$ 

Specimens  of  the  architecture  of  all  lands.  For 
instance,  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  basin,  in 
whose  waters  ducks  paddle  and  splash,  there  is  a 
quasi-southern  house,  the  roof  of  which  bends 
beneath  the  weight  of  the  leaden  gutters  commonly 
used  in  Italy;  at  one  side  is  a  small  garden  supported 
by  a  corner  of  the  quay,  in  which  are  vines,  a 
trellis  and  two  or  three  trees.  It  reminds  one 
somewhat  of  Rome,  where  certain  houses  on  the 
bank  of  the  Tiber  present  a  similar  aspect. 
Opposite,  on  the  other  shore,  is  a  large  house  with 
an  overhanging  roof  and  covered  galleries  that 
resemble  those  on  Swiss  houses.  To  make  the 
illusion  complete,  between  that  building  and  the 
mill-dam  you  see  a  broad  level  tract  with  poplars 
here  and  there,  through  which  runs  a  narrow  sandy 
road;  and  lastly  the  chateau  and  its  dependencies, 
which  seem  the  more  imposing  because  they  are 
surrounded  by  less  substantial  structures,  represent 
the  splendor  of  the  French  aristocracy. 

Although  the  squares  at  both  ends  of  the  bridge 
are  crossed  by  the  Sezanne  road,  a  vile  thoroughfare 
in  wretched  condition,  and  although  they  are  the 
most  animated  portions  of  the  town,  for  the  court  of 
the  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  municipal  ofifices  of 
Arcis  are  situated  on  Rue  Vide-Bourse,  a  Parisian 
would  consider  the  place  exceedingly  countrified 
and  deserted.  The  whole  locality  is  so  primitive 
that  there  is  actually  a  common  farm-pump  on  the 
Place  du  Pont  opposite  the  Poste  inn!  For  a  half- 
century  it  was   possible  to  admire  one  almost  its 


76  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

counterpart  in  the  superb  courtyard  of  the  Louvre! 
Nothing  can  describe  provincial  life  more  eloquently 
than  the  profound  silence  in  which  the  little  town  is 
buried  and  which  prevails  even  in  its  busiest  spot. 
One  can  readily  imagine  the  excitement  caused  by 
the  presence  of  a  stranger,  even  though  he  should 
pass  but  half  a  day  there,  how  eagerly  faces  peer 
from  every  window  to  look  at  him,  and  in  what  a 
state  of  mutual  espionage  the  inhabitants  live! 
Life  becomes  so  like  life  in  a  convent  that  with  the 
exception  of  Sundays  and  holidays  a  stranger  will 
not  meet  a  single  person  on  the  boulevards  or  the 
Avenue  of  Sighs,  or  even  in  the  streets. 

Everyone  will  understand  now  why  the  ground 
floor  of  the  Beauvisage  house  was  on  a  level  with 
the  street  and  the  square.  The  square  served  as  a 
courtyard.  Standing  at  his  window,  the  ex-cap- 
maker could  embrace  the  church  square,  the  squares 
at  each  end  of  the  bridge  and  the  Sezanne  road,  all  in 
the  same  line.  He  could  see  the  carriers  and  travelers 
arrive  at  the  Posie  inn,  and  on  business  days  he 
could  watch  the  bustle  at  the  mayor's  office  and  the 
justice's  court.  So  Beauvisage  would  not  have  ex- 
changed his  house  for  the  chateau,  despite  its  seign- 
ioral  aspect,  its  hewn  stone  and  its  superb  situation. 

On  entering  the  Beauvisage  house,  you  found  in 
front  of  you  a  peristyle  with  a  staircase  at  the  rear. 
At  the  right  was  a  large  salon,  with  two  windows 
looking  on  the  square,  and  at  the  left  a  beautiful 
dining-room  whose  windows  looked  on  the  street. 
The  living  rooms  were  on  the  first  floor. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  77 

Despite  the  wealth  of  the  Beauvisages,  their 
establishment  consisted  of  a  cook  and  a  lady's  maid, 
the  latter  a  peasant  woman  who  spent  much  more 
time  in  washing  and  ironing  and  scrubbing  than  in 
dressing  Madame  and  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage, 
who  were  accustomed  to  wait  upon  each  other  to 
pass  the  time.  Since  the  sale  of  the  hosiery  estab- 
lishment, Phileas's  horse  and  cabriolet,  which  were 
kept  at  the  Poste  inn,  had  been  suppressed  and 
sold. 


Just  as  Phileas  returned  home,  his  wife,  who  had 
been  informed  of  the  decision  of  the  Giguet  meeting, 
was  putting  on  her  boots  and  her  shawl  to  go  to  her 
father's  house;  for  she  foresaw  that  Madame  Marion 
would  come  that  evening  to  make  overtures  to  her 
relative  to  the  bestowal  of  Cecile's  hand  upon 
Simon,  After  informing  his  wife  of  Charles  Keller's 
death,  he  innocently  asked  for  her  opinion  with  a 
"What  do  you  say  to  that,  my  dear?"  which  well 
portrayed  his  habit  of  respecting  Severine's  opinion 
in  everything.  Then  he  seated  himself  in  an  easy- 
chair  and  awaited  a  reply. 

In  1839  Madame  Beauvisage,  then  about  forty-four 
years  of  age,  was  so  well  preserved  that  she  might 
have  acted  as  understudy  to  Mademoiselle  Mars. 
By  recalling  the  most  charming  Celim^ne  that  the 
The^tre-Franfais  has  ever  seen,  one  can  form  an 
accurate  idea  of  Severine  Grevin's  appearance. 
There  were  the  same  fullness  of  figure,  the  same 
beautiful  face,  the  same  sharply-defined  outlines; 
but  the  hosier's  wife  was  so  short  of  stature  that 
she  lacked  the  noble  grace,  the  coquetry  ci  la 
Sevigne  by  reason  of  which  the  great  actress  is 
enshrined  in  the  memory  of  the  men  who  saw  the 
Empire  and  the  Restoration.  Provincial  life  and 
the  negligence  in  the  matter  of  dress  to  which 
Severine  had  become  somewhat  addicted  in  the 
(79) 


8o  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

past  ten  years  imparted  an  indefinable  suggestion 
of  commonness  to  those  lovely  features,  and  a 
decided  tendency  to  corpulence  had  ruined  that 
figure,  which  was  so  superb  during  the  first  twelve 
years  of  her  married  life.  But  those  imperfections 
were  redeemed  by  a  queenly  glance,  haughty  and 
imperious,  and  by  a  characteristic  carriage  of  the 
head,  abounding  in  pride.  Her  hair,  still  jet  black 
and  long  and  abundant,  was  arranged  in  a  braid  on 
top  of  her  head  and  gave  her  a  youthful  air.  Her 
breast  and  shoulders  were  as  white  as  snow,  but  so 
rounded  and  full  as  to  impede  the  free  movement  of 
the  neck,  which  had  become  too  short.  At  the  end 
of  her  large  plump  arm  was  a  pretty,  but  over-fat 
little  hand.  She  was,  in  fact,  so  over-burdened 
with  life  and  health  that  the  flesh,  although  an 
attempt  was  made  to  confine  it,  formed  a  slight 
ridge  above  her  shoes.  Earrings  worth  three  thou- 
sand francs  each,  hung  from  her  ears.  She  wore  a 
lace  cap  with  red  ribbons,  a  dress  in  redingote  style, 
of  muslin  with  alternate  pink  and  gray  stripes  and 
a  green  border,  which  was  cut  away  at  the  bottom 
to  show  a  petticoat  trimmed  with  Valenciennes,  and 
a  green  cashmere  shawl  with  palm-leaves,  the  ends 
of  which  dragged  on  the  floor.  Her  feet  seemed  ill 
at  ease  in  high  shoes  of  bronzed  kid. 

*'You're  not  so  hungry,"  she  said,  looking  down 
at  Beauvisage,  "that  you  can't  wait  half  an  hour. 
My  father  has  finished  his  dinner  and  I  can't  eat  in 
peace  until  I  know  what  he  thinks,  and  if  we  ought 
to  go  to  Gondreville." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  8l 

"Go,  go,  my  dear;  I  will  wait  for  you,"  said  the 
ex-hosier. 

"Mon  Dieu!  shall  I  never  break  you  of  talking  to 
me  in  that  familiar  way?"  she  said  with  a  significant 
shrug  of  the  shoulders. 

"I  have  never  done  it  before  anybody  since 
1817,"  replied  Phileas. 

"You  do  it  constantly  before  the  servants  and 
before  your  daughter." 

"As  you  please,  Severine,"  rejoined  Beauvisage 
in  a  melancholy  tone. 

"Above  all  things  don't  say  a  word  to  Cecile 
about  this  decision  of  the  electors,"  added  Madame 
Beauvisage,  as  she  looked  herself  over  in  the  mirror 
and  arranged  her  shawl. 

"Do  you  want  me  to  go  to  your  father's  with 
you.?"  inquired  Phileas. 

"No,  stay  with  Cecile.  By  the  way,  isn't  Jean 
Violette  to  pay  you  the  balance  of  his  purchase 
money  to-day.?  He  is  coming  to  bring  you  his 
twenty  thousand  francs.  Three  times  he  has  put  us 
off  for  three  months;  don't  give  him  any  more  time, 
and  if  he's  not  ready  to  pay,  carry  his  note  to  Courtet, 
the  bailiff;  do  everything  in  proper  form  and  take  out 
judgment.  Achille  Pigoult  will  tell  you  what  to  do 
to  get  the  money.  That  Violette  is  a  worthy  grand- 
son of  his  grandfather!  I  believe  he  is  quite  capable 
of  enriching  himself  by  a  failure;  he  knows  neither 
faith  nor  law." 

"He  is  very  intelligent,"  said  Beauvisage. 

**You   sold   him   for   thirty   thousand    francs  an 


82  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

establishment  and  a  clientele  that  were  certainly- 
worth  fifty  thousand,  and  in  eight  years  he  has 
paid  only  ten  thousand." 

"I  never  sued  anybody,"  said  Beauvisage,  "and 
I  prefer  to  lose  my  money  rather  than  harass  a  poor 
man — " 

"A  man  who  laughs  at  you." 

Beauvisage  held  his  peace.  As  he  could  think  of 
no  reply  to  that  cruel  observation,  he  stared  at  the 
boards  that  formed  the  floor  of  the  salon. 

It  may  be  that  the  progressive  deterioration  of 
Beauvisage's  intelligence  and  will-power  can  be 
explained  by  the  abuse  of  sleep.  For  twenty  years 
he  had  retired  at  eight  o'clock  and  risen  at  eight, 
sleeping  his  twelve  hours  without  ever  waking  in 
the  night;  and  if  by  chance  that  momentous  event 
did  occur,  it  was  in  his  view  a  most  extraordinary 
thing:  he  would  talk  about  it  all  day.  He  passed 
about  an  hour  at  his  toilet,  for  his  wife  had  accus- 
tomed him  not  to  appear  in  her  presence  at  breakfast 
until  he  was  washed  and  shaven  and  dressed. 
When  he  was  in  business  he  went  away  immedi- 
ately after  breakfast  and  did  not  return  until  dinner. 
Since  1832  he  had  substituted  for  his  walk  to  his 
place  of  business  a  visit  to  his  father-in-law  and  a 
promenade,  or  ceremonious  calls.  In  all  weathers 
he  wore  boots,  blue  trousers,  a  white  waistcoat  and 
a  blue  coat,  a  costume  required  by  his  wife.  His 
linen  was  of  a  whiteness  and  fineness  that  were  the 
more  noticeable  because  Severine  compelled  him  to 
change  every  day.     This  extreme  care  of  his  person. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  83 

SO  rarely  found  in  the  provinces,  contributed  to 
increase  the  high  consideration  in  which  he  was 
held  in  Arcis,  as  a  man  of  fashion  is  held  in  Paris. 
So  it  was  that  that  grave  and  dignified  dealer  in 
cotton  caps  seemed,  so  far  as  external  appearances 
were  concerned,  to  be  an  important  personage;  for 
his  wife  was  clever  enough  never  to  have  said  a 
word  tending  to  admit  the  public  of  Arcis  into  the 
secret  of  her  disappointment  and  the  utter  nullity 
of  her  husband,  who,  thanks  to  his  smiles,  his 
obsequious  remarks  and  his  rich  attire,  was  esteemed 
one  of  the  most  noteworthy  of  men.  People  said 
that  Severine  was  so  jealous  of  him  that  she  would 
not  allow  him  to  go  to  an  evening  party,  while 
Phileas  was  bruising  the  roses  and  lilies  of  his  com- 
plexion with  the  deadening  weight  of  peaceful 
slumber.  Beauvisage,  who  lived  in  accordance 
with  his  tastes,  coddled  by  his  wife,  well  served  by 
his  two  servants  and  cajoled  by  his  daughter,  called 
himself  the  happiest  man  in  Arcis,  and  so  he  was. 
Severine's  feeling  for  that  insignificant  creature  was 
not  altogether  devoid  of  the  protecting  compassion 
of  a  mother  for  her  children.  She  disguised  the 
harshness  of  the  words  she  was  compelled  to  use  to 
him  beneath  a  jesting  manner.  No  household  could 
be  more  peaceful,  and  Phileas's  aversion  for  social 
functions,  where  he  fell  asleep,  where  he  could  not 
play  cards,  for  he  did  not  know  any  game,  had  made 
Severine  the  absolute  mistress  of  her  evenings. 

Cecile's   appearance    put    an  end    to    Phileas's 
embarrassment. 


r 


84  THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

"How  lovely  you  are!"  he  cried. 

Madame  Beauvisage  turned  sharply  and  bestowed 
upon  her  daughter  a  piercing  glance  that  made  her 
blush. 

"Well,  Cecile,  who  told  you  to  dress  like  that?" 
her  mother  asked. 

"Aren't  we  going  to  Madame  Marion's  this  even- 
ing?    I  put  on  my  new  dress  to  see  how  it  looks." 

"Cecile!  Cecile!  why  do  you  try  to  deceive  your 
mother?"  said  Severine.  "That  isn't  right,  I  am  not 
pleased  with  you,  you  are  trying  to  conceal  some 
thought  from  me." 

"Why,  what  has  she  done?"  queried  Beauvisage, 
delighted  to  see  his  daughter  so  sprucely  attired. 

"What  has  she  done?  I  will  let  her  know!"  said 
Madame  Beauvisage,  shaking  her  finger  threaten- 
ingly at  her  only  daughter. 

Cecile  threw  her  arms  around  her  mother's  neck, 
kissed  her,  and  coaxed  her, — a  way  that  an  only 
daughter  has  of  putting  herself  in  the  right. 

Cecile  Beauvisage,  a  young  lady  of  nineteen,  had 
arrayed  herself  in  a  gray  silk  dress,  trimmed  with 
braid  of  a  deeper  gray,  and  made  in  the  style  of  a 
coat  in  front.  The  high-necked,  pleated  waist, 
with  its  buttons  and  jockeys,  ended  in  a  point  in 
front  and  was  laced  behind  like  corsets.  It  thus 
outlined  perfectly  the  back  and  hips  and  bust.  The 
skirt,  trimmed  with  three  rows  of  fringe,  fell  in 
graceful  folds,  and  betrayed  by  its  style  and  cut  the 
cunning  of  a  Parisian  dressmaker.  A  pretty  fichu, 
trimmed  with  lace,  fell  over  the  front  of  the  waist. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  85 

Around  her  neck  the  heiress  wore  a  pink  silk- 
handkerchief  tied  in  a  tasteful  knot,  and  on  her 
head  a  straw  hat  adorned  with  a  simple  moss  rose. 
Her  hands  were  encased  in  black  thread  mitts;  and 
her  feet  in  high  shoes  of  bronzed  kid;  in  fine,  except 
for  her  somewhat  festive  appearance,  that  figure, 
worthy  of  a  fashion-plate  in  a  journal  des  modes, 
would  have  enchanted  Cecile's  father  and  mother. 
Cecile  was  very  well-built,  too,  of  medium  height 
and  perfectly  proportioned.  She  had  arranged  her 
chestnut  hair,  in  accordance  with  the  fashion  of 
1839,  '^  two  broad  plaits  which  framed  her  face  and 
were  brought  together  at  the  back  of  the  head. 
Her  face  was  ruddy  with  health,  of  a  patrician  cast, 
and  noticeable  by  reason  of  the  aristocratic  air 
which  she  inherited  neither  from  her  father  nor  her 
mother.  Her  light-brown  eyes  were  entirely  lack- 
ing in  the  gentle,  calm,  almost  melancholy  expression 
natural  to  young  girls.  Vivacious,  full  of  life  and  in 
robust  health,  Cecile  marred  all  the  romance  there 
was  in  her  face  by  a  sort  of  bourgeois  downrightness 
and  by  the  freedom  of  manners  characteristic  of 
spoiled  children.  Nevertheless,  a  husband  capable 
of  making  over  her  education  and  of  expunging 
therefrom  the  traces  of  provincial  life,  might  still 
have  fashioned  that  block  into  a  charming  woman. 
Indeed  the  pride  that  Severine  had  implanted  in  her 
daughter  had  outweighed  the  effects  of  her  maternal 
affection.  Madame  Beauvisage  had  had  the  courage 
to  bring  up  her  daughter  on  an  excellent  system; 
she  had  forced  herself  to  adopt  a  feigned  severity  of 


86  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

treatment  which  enabled  her  to  compel  obedience 
and  to  repress  the  very  slight  tendency  to  evil  that 
existed  in  that  heart.  The  mother  and  the  daugh- 
ter were  inseparable;  and  so  Cecile  had — and  those 
qualities  are  more  rarely  found  in  young  girls  than 
is  generally  supposed — genuine,  absolute  and  perfect 
purity  of  thought,  freshness  of  heart  and  innocence. 

"Your  costume  sets  me  to  thinking,"  said  Madame 
Beauvisage;  "can  it  be  that  Simon  Giguet  said  any- 
thing to  you  yesterday  that  you  haven't  told  me?" 

"Even  if  he  did,"  said  Phileas,  "a  man  who  is 
about  to  receive  the  mandate  of  his  fellow- 
citizens — " 

"Dear  mamma,"  said  Cecile  in  her  mother's  ear, 
"he  bores  me;  but  he  is  the  only  one  left  for  me  in 
Arcis." 

"You  are  not  far  from  right;  but  wait  till  your 
grandfather  has  spoken,"  said  Madame  Beauvisage, 
kissing  her  daughter,  whose  reply  indicated  great 
good  sense,  although  it  revealed  a  breach  in  her 
innocence,  made  by  the  thought  of  marriage. 

Grevin's  house,  which  is  situated  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Aube  and  forms  the  corner  of  the  little 
square  above  the  bridge,  is  one  of  the  oldest  in 
Arcis.  It  is  built  of  wood  and  the  interstices  in  the 
thin  walls  are  filled  with  pebbles;  but  it  is  covered 
with  a  coat  of  mortar,  smoothed  with  the  trowel 
and  painted  gray.  Despite  that  coquettish  decora- 
tion, it  has  none  the  less  the  appearance  of  a  house 
built  of  cards.  The  garden,  which  lies  along  the 
river  bank,  is  protected  by  a  terraced  wall  crowned 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  87 

with  flower  pots.  This  humble  dwelling,  at  whose 
windows  are  solid  shutters  painted  gray  like  the 
walls,  is  furnished  in  harmony  with  the  simplicity 
of  the  exterior.  As  you  enter  a  small  paved  court- 
yard, you  see  the  green  trellises  which  separate  it 
from  the  garden.  On  the  ground  floor  is  the  former 
office,  converted  into  a  salon,  with  windows  looking 
on  the  river  and  the  square;  it  is  furnished  with 
old-fashioned  furniture  covered  with  green  Utrecht 
velvet  very  badly  worn.  The  retired  notary's 
former  study  has  become  the  dining-room.  There 
everything  indicates  a  profoundly  philosophical  old 
man,  leading  one  of  the  lives  that  flow  on  as  a  little 
brook  flows  through  green  fields,  and  that  the 
harlequins  of  political  life  envy  at  last  when  their 
minds  are  disillusioned  concerning  social  grandeurs, 
or  weary  of  struggling  madly  against  the  onward 
march  of  the  human  race. 

While  Severine  is  crossing  the  bridge,  watching 
the  house  to  see  if  her  father  has  finished  his  dinner, 
it  will  be  well  to  cast  a  glance  at  the  personal 
appearance,  the  life  and  the  opinions  of  that  old 
man,  who  was  commended  to  the  respect  of  the 
whole  province  by  the  friendship  of  Comte  Malin  de 
Gondreville.  This  is  the  simple,  artless  history  of 
the  notary,  who  was  for  a  long  while  the  only 
notary  in  Arcis,  so  to  speak. — 

In  1787  two  young  men  went  from  Arcis  to  Paris, 
with  letters  of  recommendation  to  an  advocate 
before  the  Council  named  Danton.  That  illustrious 
patriot  was  a  native  of  Arcis.     His  house  can  still 


88  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

be  seen  and  the  family  is  still  in  existence  there. 
That  fact  will  perhaps  explain  the  influence  exerted 
by  the  Revolution  upon  that  corner  of  Champagne. 
Danton  found  places  for  his  compatriots  in  the  office 
of  the  king's  attorney  at  the  Ch^telet,  who  became 
so  famous  through  his  lawsuit  with  Comte  Morton 
de  Chabrillant  concerning  his  box  at  the  first  per- 
formance of  Ix  Manage  de  Figaro,  and  whose 
quarrel  was  espoused  by  the  Parliament,  that  body 
deeming  itself  insulted  in  the  person  of  its  attorney. 
One  of  the  young  men  was  named  Malin,  the  other 
Grevin,  and  both  were  only  sons.  Malin's  father 
was  the  owner  of  the  house  in  which  Grevin  lives 
to-day.  They  entertained  for  each  other  a  recip- 
rocal, steadfast  regard.  Malin,  a  shrewd  youth  of 
profound  and  ambitious  mind,  had  the  gift  of  speech. 
Grevin,  honest  and  laborious,  devoted  himself  to 
admiration  of  Malin  as  his  calling.  They  returned 
to  their  province  when  the  Revolution  broke  out, 
one  to  be  an  advocate  at  Troyes,  the  other  to  be  a 
notary  at  Arcis.  Grevin,  who  was  Malin's  obse- 
quious slave,  procured  his  election  as  a  member  of 
the  Convention.  Malin  procured  Grevin's  appoint- 
ment as  procureur-syndic  of  Arcis.  Malin  was  an 
obscure  figure  in  the  Convention  until  the  gth 
Thermidor,  standing  always  with  the  more  powerful 
faction  and  helping  to  crush  the  weaker;  but  Tallien 
convinced  him  of  the  necessity  of  striking  down 
Robespierre.  Malin  distinguished  himself  in  that 
terrible  struggle,  courage  came  to  him  most  oppor- 
tunely.    With  that  crisis  began  this  man's  political 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  89 

career,  as  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  lower  sphere: 
he  deserted  the  party  of  Thermidorians  for  the 
Clichyans,  and  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  Ancients.  Having  become  the  friend  of 
Talleyrand  and  Fouche,  conspiring  with  them 
against  Bonaparte,  he  became  like  them  one  of 
Bonaparte's  warmest  partisans  after  Marengo. 
Appointed  tribune,  he  was  among  the  first  to  enter 
the  Council  of  State,  was  one  of  the  compilers  of 
the  Code,  and  was  one  of  the  first  men  promoted  to 
be  senator  under  the  name  of  Comte  de  Gondreville. 

Such  was  the  political  side  of  that  life;  let  us  now 
glance  at  its  financial  side. 

Grevin  was  the  most  active  and  most  adroit 
instrument  of  the  Comte  de  Gondreville's  fortune 
in  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis.  The  Gondreville 
estate  belonged  to  the  Simeuses,  a  fine  old  provincial 
family,  decimated  by  the  scaffold,  whose  heirs,  two 
young  men,  were  serving  in  the  Prince  de  Conde's 
army.  That  estate,  being  sold  as  the  property  of 
the  nation,  was  purchased  by  Malin,  in  the  name  of 
Monsieur  Marion,  by  the  skilful  management  of 
Grevin.  Grevin  purchased  for  his  friend  the  best 
part  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  property  sold  by  the 
Republic  in  the  department  of  the  Aube.  Malin 
sent  him  the  funds  necessary  for  these  purchases, 
nor  did  he  forget  his  man  of  business.  When  the 
Directory  came  into  power,  a  period  at  which  Malin 
was  very  prominent  in  the  counsels  of  this  Republic, 
the  sales  were  completed  in  Malin's  name.  Grevin 
was  a  notary,  Malin  a  Councilor  of  State.     Grevin 


90  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

was  Mayor  of  Arcis,  Malin  was  senator  and  Comte 
de  Gondreville.  Malin  married  the  daughter  of  a 
millionaire  army  contractor,  Grevin  married  the  only 
daughter  of  Goodman  Varlet,  the  leading  physician 
of  Arcis.  The  Comte  de  Gondreville  had  three 
hundred  thousand  francs  a  year,  a  mansion  at  Paris 
and  the  magnificent  chateau  de  Gondreville;  he 
married  one  of  his  daughters  to  one  of  the  Kellers, 
bankers  in  Paris,  the  other  to  the  Marechal  Due  de 
Carigliano.  Grevin,  with  an  income  of  fifteen 
thousand  francs,  owns  the  house  in  which  he  is 
finishing  out  his  tranquil  life,  spending  little;  and  he 
has  continued  to  act  as  man  of  business  for  his 
friend,  who  sold  him  the  house  for  six  thousand 
francs.  The  Comte  de  Gondreville  is  eighty  years 
old  and  Grevin  seventy-six.  The  peer  of  France 
walks  in  his  park,  the  ex-notary  in  Malin's  father's 
garden:  both  enveloped  in  swanskin  and  heaping 
louis  upon  louis.  No  cloud  has  ever  darkened  that 
friendship  of  sixty  years.  The  notary  has  always 
obeyed  the  member  of  Convention,  the  Councilor 
of  State,  the  senator,  the  peer  of  France.  After  the 
Revolution  of  July,  Malin  said  to  Grevin  one  day  as 
he  was  driving  through  Arcis: 

"Do  you  want  the  Cross?" 

"What  should  I  do  with  it?"  was  Grevin's  reply. 

Neither  had  ever  failed  the  other;  they  had 
always  told  each  other  everything  and  advised  each 
other,  the  one  without  jealousy,  the  other  without 
arrogance  or  offensive  assumption  of  superiority. 
Malin  had  always  been  obliged  to  make  allowances 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  9I 

for  Grevin,  for  Grevin's  whole  pride  was  the  Comte 
de  Gondreville.  Grevin  was  as  much  Comte  de 
Gondreville  as  that  nobleman  himself  was.  Since 
the  Revolution  of  July,  however,  as  Grevin,  con- 
scious that  he  was  growing  old,  had  ceased  to  manage 
the  count's  property,  and  the  count,  enfeebled  by 
age  and  his  active  participation  in  politics,  had 
determined  to  lead  a  tranquil  life  thenceforth,  the 
two  old  men,  sure  of  each  other's  loyalty,  but 
having  now  less  need  of  each  other,  seldom  met. 
On  his  way  to  his  estate,  and  when  he  was  return- 
ing to  Paris,  the  count  always  called  upon  Grevin, 
who  paid  but  one  or  two  visits  to  the  count  during 
his  stay  at  Gondreville.  There  was  no  tie  between 
their  children.  Neither  Madame  Keller  nor  the 
Duchesse  de  Carigliano  had  ever  had  the  slightest 
intimacy  with  Mademoiselle  Grevin,  either  before  or 
after  her  marriage  to  Beauvisage  the  manufacturer 
of  hosiery.  Their  disdain,  whether  involuntary  or 
designed,  surprised  Severine  very  much.  Grevin, 
who  was  Mayor  of  Arcis  under  the  Empire  and  was 
ready  to  be  of  service  to  everyone,  had,  during  his 
incumbency  of  the  office,  smoothed  away  and 
obviated  many  difficulties.  His  outspokenness,  his 
good-humor  and  his  uprightness  won  him  the  esteem 
and  affection  of  the  whole  arrondissement;  moreover 
everyone  respected  in  him  the  dispenser  of  the 
favor,  the  power  and  the  influence  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville. 

Nevertheless,  since  the  notary's  activity  and  his 
participation  in  public  and  private  affairs  had  ceased 


92  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

— that  is  to  say,  since  eight  years  prior  to  the  time 
of  which  we  write — he  had  been  almost  forgotten  in 
Arcis,  where  everyone  expected,  from  day  to  day, 
to  hear  of  his  death.  Like  his  friend  Malin,  Grevin 
seemed  to  vegetate  rather  than  to  live;-  he  never 
showed  himself  in  public,  he  worked  in  his  garden, 
trimmed  his  trees,  watched  the  progress  of  his 
vegetables  and  his  buds;  and,  like  all  old  men,  he 
tried  to  anticipate  the  sensations  of  a  dead  man. 
The  septuagenarian's  life  was  absolutely  regular. 
Rising  at  dawn  and  retiring  before  nine  o'clock,  like 
his  friend  Colonel  Giguet,  he  led  the  frugal  life  of  a 
miser  and  drank  little  wine,  but  that  little  was  of 
exquisite  quality.  He  drank  coffee,  but  never 
liqueurs,  and  the  only  exercise  he  took  was  that 
involved  in  his  gardening.  He  wore  the  same 
clothes  in  all  weathers:  heavy  oiled  shoes,  milled 
stockings,  gray  swanskin  trousers  with  knee- 
buckles,  but  no  suspenders,  an  ample  waistcoat  of 
light  sky-blue  broadcloth  with  horn  buttons,  and  a 
frockcoat  of  gray  swanskin  like  the  trousers;  on  his 
head  he  wore  a  little  round  otter  cap  and  kept  it  on 
in  the  house.  In  summer  the  cap  was  replaced  by 
a  sort  of  skull-cap  of  black  velvet,  and  the  swanskin 
coat  by  one  of  iron-gray  cloth.  He  was  five  feet 
four  inches  tall;  he  had  the  customary  corpulence  of 
old  men  in  good  health,  which  had  a  tendency  to 
increase  the  sluggishness  of  his  gait,  naturally  some- 
what slow,  like  that  of  all  those  whose  lives  are 
passed  in  offices. 

At  daybreak  the  good  man  dressed  himself  with 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  93 

the  most  scrupulous  attention  to  the  smallest  details 
of  his  toilet;  he  shaved  himself,  then  he  made  the 
circuit  of  his  garden,  observed  the  weather,  con- 
sulted his  barometer  and  opened  the  shutters  of  his 
salon.  Then  he  hoed  and  weeded  and  killed  cater- 
pillars, always  finding  something  to  do  before 
breakfast.  After  breakfast,  he  sat  quietly  in  the 
house  until  two  o'clock,  to  allow  his  food  to  digest, 
thinking  of  heaven  knows  what.  His  granddaughter 
almost  always  came  to  see  him  between  two  o'clock 
and  five,  escorted  by  a  servant,  and  sometimes 
accompanied  by  her  mother.  On  certain  days  this 
mechanical  life  was  interrupted:  there  were  rents  to 
receive,  in  money  and  in  produce,  the  latter  being 
sold  at  once.  But  that  little  disturbance  occurred 
only  on  market  days,  once  a  month.  What  became 
of  the  money?  No  one,  not  even  Severine  or  Cecile 
knew;  Grevin  possessed  a  more  than  ecclesiastical 
secretiveness.  But  all  the  old  man's  sentiments 
had  finally  become  concentrated  upon  his  daughter 
and  grandchild,  he  loved  them  more  dearly  than  his 
money. 

This  scrupulously  neat,  round-faced  septuagena- 
rian, with  the  bald  head,  blue  eyes  and  fringe  of 
white  hair,  had  a  strain  of  arbitrariness  in  his 
character  like  all  those  to  whom  men  and  things 
have  always  yielded.  His  only  defect — which  was 
extremely  well  concealed,  by  the  way,  for  he  had 
never  had  occasion  to  display  it — was  a  persistent, 
inveterate  rancor,  a  sensitiveness  which  Malin  had 
never  wounded.     If  Grevin  had   always  done  the 


94  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Comte  de  Gondreville's  bidding,  he  had  always 
found  him  grateful;  Malin  had  never  humiliated  nor 
irritated  his  friend,  whom  he  knew  from  top  to  toe. 
The  two  friends  still  retained  the  familiar  mode  of 
address  of  their  youth,  and  exchanged  the  same 
affectionate  grasp  of  the  hand.  The  senator  had 
never  caused  Grevin  to  feel  the  difference  in  their 
respective  positions;  he  always  anticipated  the 
wishes  of  his  childhood's  friend,  and  always  offered 
him  everything,  knowing  that  he  would  content 
himself  with  very  little. 

Grevin  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  classical 
literature,  a  purist,  an  excellent  administrator,  and 
he  possessed  a  vast  store  of  useful  knowledge  upon 
matters  of  legislation;  he  had  done  work  for  Malin 
which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  renown  of  that 
compiler  of  codes,  in  the  Council  of  State.  Seve- 
rine  was  very  fond  of  her  father;  she  and  her 
daughter  would  allow  no  one  else  to  make  his  linen; 
they  knitted  stockings  for  him  for  the  winter,  they 
took  the  most  minute  precautions  concerning  his 
health,  and  Grevin  knew  that  no  selfish  thought 
entered  into  their  affection  for  him:  the  probable 
million  that  they  would  inherit  from  him  would  not 
dry  their  tears;  old  men  are  highly  appreciative  of 
disinterested  affection.  Before  leaving  the  old 
gentleman's  house,  Madame  Beauvisage  and  Cecile 
invariably  discussed  the  subject  of  his  next  day's 
dinner,  and  they  sent  him  the  choicest  dainties  in 
the  market. 

Madame    Beauvisage    had    always    desired   her 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  95 

father  to  present  her  at  the  chateau  de  Gondre- 
ville  and  enable  her  to  become  intimate  with  the 
count's  daughters,  but  the  sagacious  old  man  had 
explained  to  her  again  and  again  how  difficult  it 
would  be  to  maintain  continuous  relations  with  the 
Duchesse  de  Carigliano,  who  lived  in  Paris  and 
rarely  came  to  Gondreville,  or  with  the  brilliant 
Madame  Keller,  when  one  conducted  a  hosiery 
factory  at  Arcis. 

"Your  life  is  ended,"  he  said  to  his  daughter; 
**let  all  your  enjoyment  in  future  be  centred  in 
Cecile,  who  will  certainly  be  rich  enough  to  enable 
you,  when  you  abandon  trade,  to  lead  the  large 
and  brilliant  life  which  is  your  due.  Select  a  son- 
in-law  who  has  ambition  and  resources,  and  some 
day  you  will  be  able  to  go  to  Paris  and  leave  that 
silly  fool  Beauvisage  behind.  If  I  live  long  enough 
to  have  a  grandson-in-law,  I  will  pilot  you  over  the 
sea  of  political  interests  as  I  piloted  Malin,  and  you 
will  attain  a  position  equal  to  the  Kellers'." 

Those  few  words,  spoken  before  the  Revolution 
of  1830  and  a  year  after  the  old  notary's  retirement, 
explain  his  vegetative  attitude.  Grevin  wished  to 
live,  he  was  ambitious  to  start  his  daughter,  his 
granddaughter  and  his  great-grandchildren  on  the 
road  to  grandeur.  His  ambition  extended  to  the 
third  generation.  When  he  spoke  thus  the  old 
man  was  dreaming  of  marrying  Cecile  to  Charles 
Keller;  so  that  now  he  was  weeping  over  his  dis- 
appointed hopes,  he  knew  not  what  course  to 
pursue.     Having  no  connections  in  Parisian  society, 


96  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and  unable  to  think  of  any  other  husband  for 
Cecile  in  the  department  of  the  Aube  than  the 
young  Marquis  de  Cinq-Cygne,  he  asked  himself 
whether  he  would  be  able  to  overcome,  by  the 
power  of  gold,  the  obstacles  erected  by  the  Revolu- 
tion of  July  between  the  royalists  who  were  faith- 
ful to  their  principles  and  their  conquerors.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  his  granddaughter's  happiness 
would  be  so  endangered  if  she  were  delivered  over 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  haughty  Marquise  de 
Cinq-Cygne,  that  he  decided  to  place  his  trust  in 
the  old  man's  friend,  time.  He  hoped  that  his 
mortal  enemy,  the  Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne,  would 
die,  and  he  believed  that,  in  that  case,  he  could 
win  over  her  son,  the  young  marquis,  by  making 
use  of  his  grandfather,  old  D'Hauteserre,  who  was 
then  living  at  Cinq-Cygne,  and  whom  he  knew  to 
be  accessible  to  the  temptations  of  avarice.  If  that 
plan  should  come  to  nothing  before  Cecile  Beau- 
visage  was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  then  Grevin, 
despairing  of  its  success,  would  consult  his  friend 
Gondreville,  who  would  select  for  him  in  Paris, 
among  the  dukes  of  the  Empire,  a  husband  after 
his  own  heart  and  ambition. 

Severine  found  her  father  seated  on  a  wooden 
bench  at  one  end  of  his  terrace,  under  a  flowering 
lilac,  and  taking  his  coffee,  for  it  was  half-past  five. 
She  saw,  by  the  grief  depicted  upon  her  father's  face, 
that  he  had  heard  the  news.  In  fact  the  old  peer 
of  France  had  just  sent  a  servant  to  his  friend, 
begging  him  to  come  to  see  him.    Hitherto  Grevin 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  97- 

had  refrained  from  encouraging  his  daughter's 
ambition;  but  at  that  moment,  amid  the  contradic- 
tory reflections  that  were  jostling  one  another  in 
his  sad  reverie,  his  secret  escaped  him. 

"My  dear  child,"  he  said,  "I  had  formed  the 
noblest  and  grandest  projects  for  your  future. 
Death  has  defeated  them  all.  Cecile  would  have 
been  Vicomtesse  Keller,  for  Charles  would  have 
been  chosen  Deputy  from  Arcis,  through  my 
efforts,  and  some  day  he  would  have  succeeded  to 
his  father's  peerage.  Neither  Gondreville  nor  his 
daughter  Madame  Keller  would  have  refused  the 
sixty  thousand  francs  a  year  of  Cecile's  dowry, 
especially  with  the  prospect  of  a  hundred  thousand 
more  which  you  will  have  some  day.  You  would 
have  lived  in  Paris  with  your  daughter,  and  would 
have  played  your  r61e  of  mother-in-law  in  the  high- 
est government  circles." 

Madame  Beauvisage  made  a  gesture  of  satisfac- 
tion. 

"But  we  are  all  stricken  by  the  bullet  that  de- 
prives us  of  that  charming  young  man  who  had 
already  won  the  friendship  of  the  Prince  Royal. — 
Now  this  Simon  Giguet,  who  is  forcing  himself  for- 
ward on  the  political  stage,  is  an  idiot,  an  idiot  of 
the  worst  sort,  for  he  believes  that  he's  an  eagle. — 
You  are  too  intimate  with  the  Giguets  and  Madame 
Marion  not  to  make  your  refusal  as  courteous  as 
possible,  but  you  must  refuse." 

"We  are,  as  always,  of  the  same  opinion,  father." 

"All  this  makes  it  necessary  for  me  to  see  my 
7 


qS  the  deputy  from  arcis 

old  Malin,  in  the  first  place  to  comfort  him  and 
secondly  to  consult  with  him.  You  and  Cecile 
would  be  very  unhappy  with  an  old  family  of 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain,  you  would  be  made  to 
feel  your  humble  origin  in  a  thousand  ways;  we 
must  try  to  find  some  duke  of  Bonaparte's  making, 
who  is  ruined:  we  shall  be  able  in  that  way  to 
obtain  a  fine  title  for  Cecile,  and  we  will  marry  her 
with  a  provision  that  she  is  to  enjoy  her  separate 
property.  You  can  say  that  I  have  disposed  of 
Cecile's  hand  and  that  will  cut  off  all  such  imperti- 
nent suits  as  Antonin  Goulard's.  Little  Vinet  will 
not  fail  to  offer  himself;  he  would  be  preferable  to 
all  the  swains  who  will  get  scent  of  the  dowry. — 
He  has  talent  and  cunning,  and  he  is  connected 
with  the  Chargebceufs  through  his  mother;  but  he 
has  too  strong  a  character  not  to  rule  his  wife,  and 
he  is  young  enough  to  make  her  love  him:  you 
would  die  between  those  two  sentiments,  for  I  know 
you  by  heart,  my  child!" 

"I  shall  be  well  coddled  to-night  at  the  Marions," 
said  Severine. 

"Well,  my  child,"  rejoined  Grevin,  "send 
Madame  Marion  to  me,  I  will  talk  to  her!" 

"I  knew  very  well,  father,  that  you  would  think 
of  our  future,  but  I  had  no  idea  that  it  was  to  be  so 
brilliant,"  said  Madame  Beauvisage,  taking  her 
father's  hands  and  kissing  them. 

"I  have  thought  so  deeply  about  it,"  replied 
Grevin,  "that  in  183 1  I  bought  a  house  in  Paris 
that  you  know,  the  Beauseant  mansion — " 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  99 

Madame  Beauvisage  started  in  surprise  upon  learn- 
ing that  well-kept  secret,  but  she  did  not  interrupt 
her  father. 

"That  will  be  my  wedding  present,"  he  said. 
*'In  1832  I  let  it  for  seven  years  to  some  English 
people,  for  twenty-four  thousand  francs  a  year;  a 
very  pretty  little  investment,  for  it  cost  me  only 
three  hundred  and  twenty -five  thousand,  and  I  have 
got  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  back.  The  lease 
expires  on  the  15th  of  July  of  this  year." 

Severine  kissed  her  father  on  the  forehead  and 
both  cheeks.  This  last  revelation  so  enlarged  the 
horizon  of  her  future  that  she  had  something  like  an 
attack  of  vertigo. 

"If  father  takes  my  advice  he  will  give  only  the 
legal  title  to  that  estate  to  his  grandchildren  and 
will  allow  me  the  beneficial  use  of  it,"  she  said  to 
herself  as  she  recrossed  the  bridge;  "I  don't  choose 
that  my  daughter  and  son-in-law  shall  turn  me  out 
of  their  house;  they  must  live  in  my  house!" 

At  dessert,  when  the  two  maidservants  were  at 
table  in  the  kitchen  and  Madame  Beauvisage  was 
certain  of  not  being  overheard,  she  deemed  it 
necessary  to  read  Cecile  a  little  lecture. 

"Behave  like  a  well-bred  young  lady  this  evening, 
my  daughter,"  she  said;  "and  from  this  time  adopt 
an  air  of  dignity,  do  not  talk  on  frivolous  subjects, 
do  not  walk  alone  with  Monsieur  Giguet  nor  with 
Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet,  nor  with  the  sub-prefect, 
nor  with  Monsieur  Martener,  nor  with  anybody  else, 
not  even  Achille  Pigoult.     You  shall  not  marry  any 


lOO  THE   DEPUTY  FROM   ARCIS 

one  of  the  young  men  of  Arcis  or  of  the  department 
either.  You  are  destined  to  make  your  mark  in 
Paris.  So  you  shall  have  lovely  dresses  every  day, 
in  order  to  accustom  you  to  luxury.  We  will  try  to 
bribe  one  of  the  young  Duchesse  de  Maufrigneuse's 
maids:  in  that  way  we  can  find  out  where  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan  and  the  Marquise  de  Cinq- 
Cygne  buy  their  dresses.  Oh!  I  don't  propose  that 
we  shall  have  the  slightest  trace  of  provincialism. 
You  must  study  the  piano  three  hours  a  day;  I  will 
have  Monsieur  MoYse  come  from  Troyes  every  day, 
until  I  hear  of  some  teacher  that  I  can  send  for  from 
Paris.  We  must  make  you  perfect  in  all  your 
accomplishments,  for  you  only  have  a  year  longer 
at  most  to  remain  unmarried.  Now  you  are  warned, 
I  will  see  how  you  behave  this  evening.  What  you 
must  do  is,  keep  Simon  at  a  distance  without  making 
fun  of  him." 

"Never  fear,  mamma!  I  am  going  to  worship  at 
the  feet  of  the  unknown." 

That  word,  which  brought  a  smile  to  Madame 
Beauvisage's  lips,  requires  an  explanation. 

"Ah!  I  haven't  seen  him  yet,"  said  Phileas;  "but 
everybody  is  talking  about  him.  When  I  want  to 
know  who  he  is,  I'll  send  the  brigadier  or  Monsieur 
Groslier  to  ask  him  for  his  passport." 


There  are  no  small  towns  in  France  in  which  the 
drama  or  the  comedy  of  The  Stranger  is  not  played 
at  one  time  or  another.  It  often  happens  that  the 
stranger  is  an  adventurer  who  makes  dupes  and 
then  departs,  carrying  with  him  a  woman's  reputa- 
tion or  the  money  of  a  whole  family.  More  often 
the  stranger  is  a  genuine  stranger  whose  life  remains 
shrouded  in  mystery  long  enough  for  the  town  in 
question  to  take  an  absorbing  interest  in  his  acts 
and  movements.  Now,  the  probable  accession  to 
power  of  Simon  Giguet  was  not  the  only  grave 
event  of  present  interest.  For  two  days  the  atten- 
tion of  the  town  of  Arcis  had  been  concentrated 
upon  a  person  who  had  arrived  there  three  days 
before  and  who  was  the  first  stranger  within  the 
memory  of  the  present  generation.  So  it  was  that 
the  unknown  was  the  principal  topic  of  conversation 
in  every  family.  He  was  the  log  that  fell  from  the 
sky  into  the  city  of  frogs. 

The  situation  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  will  explain  the 
effect  which  a  stranger's  arrival  there  was  certain 
to  produce.  About  six  leagues  before  Troyes  on 
the  stage  road  from  Paris,  at  a  farmhouse  called  La 
Belle-Etoile,  is  the  starting  point  of  a  departmental 
road  which  leads  to  the  town  of  Arcis  across  a  broad 
level  tract  through  which  the  Seine  runs  in  a  narrow 
green  valley,  shaded  by  poplars,  which  stand  sharply 

(lOl) 


I02  THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

out  against  the  chalky  soil  of  Champagne.  The 
road  connecting  Arcis  and  Troyes  is  six  leagues 
long  and  forms  the  chord  of  an  arc,  whose  extremities 
are  Arcis  and  Troyes,  so  that  the  shortest  route 
from  Paris  to  Arcis  is  by  the  departmental  road 
which  you  take  at  La  Belle-Etoile.  The  Aube,  as 
we  have  said,  is  navigable  only  from  Arcis  to  its 
mouth.  Thus  that  town,  situated  six  leagues  from 
the  high  road,  separated  from  Troyes  by  monotonous 
plains,  is  lost  as  it  were  in  the  desert,  without  com- 
merce, or  means  of  transportation  by  land  or  water. 
Sezanne  on  the  other  hand,  which  lies  only  a  few 
leagues  from  Arcis  on  the  other  side  of  the  Aube,  is 
traversed  by  a  high  road  which  is  shorter  by  eight 
posts  than  the  old  road  from  Germany  to  Troyes. 
Arcis  therefore  is  an  entirely  isolated  town,  to  which 
no  public  carriage  runs,  and  which  has  no  other 
connection  than  by  carriers  with  Troyes  and  with 
the  station  at  La  Belle-Etoile.  All  the  inhabitants 
know  one  another,  they  even  know  the  commercial 
travelers  from  the  Parisian  business  houses,  and  so, 
"as  in  all  small  provincial  towns  similarly  situated,  a 
stranger  is  certain  to  set  every  tongue  in  motion 
and  to  excite  every  imagination,  when  he  remains 
there  more  than  two  days  without  anyone  learning 
his  name  or  why  he  has  come  there. 

Now,  as  all  Arcis  was  in  a  state  of  tranquillity 
three  days  before  the  morning  on  which,  by  the 
will  of  the  creator  of  so  many  histories,  this  one 
begins,  the  whole  town  had  witnessed  the  arrival, 
by  the  road  from    La    Belle-Etoile,  of  a   stranger 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM   ARCIS  IO3 

driving  a  handsome  tilbury  drawn  by  a  blooded 
horse,  and  accompanied  by  a  small  servant,  no 
larger  than  one's  hand,  riding  a  saddle  horse.  The 
carrier  who  connected  with  the  Troyes  diligences 
had  brought  from  La  Belle-Etoile  three  trunks  that 
had  come  from  Paris,  without  address,  and  that 
belonged  to  the  stranger,  who  had  taken  lodgings  at 
Ix  Mulet.  Everyone  in  Arcis  concluded  that  even- 
ing that  the  individual  in  question  intended  to 
purchase  the  estate  of  Arcis,  and  he  was  spoken  of 
in  many  households  as  the  future  owner  of  the 
chateau.  The  tilbury,  the  traveler,  his  horses  and 
his  servant,  all  seemed  to  belong  to  the  highest 
social  sphere. 

The  stranger,  being  fatigued  doubtless,  did  not 
appear;  perhaps  he  passed  part  of  his  time  in 
making  himself  comfortable  in  the  quarters  he  had 
selected,  announcing  his  purpose  to  remain  for  some 
time.  He  desired  to  see  the  place  his  horses  were 
to  occupy  in  the  stable,  and  he  proved  to  be  very 
exacting;  he  insisted  that  they  should  be  kept  apart 
from  those  belonging  to  the  innkeeper  and  from 
any  others  that  might  come.  In  view  of  these 
extraordinary  demands  the  maitre  d'hotel  at  Le 
Mulet  concluded  that  the  guest  was  an  Englishman. 
During  the  evening  of  the  first  day  several  attempts 
to  obtain  information  were  made  by  inquisitive 
individuals  at  Le  Mulet;  but  they  could  obtain  no 
light  from  the  diminutive  groom,  who  refused  to 
answer  any  questions  concerning  his  master,  not  by 
evasion  or  by  silence,  but  by  mocking  retorts  which 


104  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

seemed  beyond  his  years  and  indicated  great 
depravity.  After  making  a  careful  toilet  and 
dining,  the  stranger  set  off  on  horseback  about  six 
o'clock,  on  the  Brienne  road,  followed  by  his  tiger, 
and  did  not  return  until  very  late.  The  innkeeper, 
his  wife  and  his  chambermaids  discovered  nothing 
by  an  examination  of  the  stranger's  trunks  and 
effects  that  threw  any  light  upon  the  rank,  the 
name,  the  circumstances  or  the  purposes  of  the 
mysterious  guest. 

The  effect  was  incalculable.  A  thousand  sugges- 
tions were  made  of  a  nature  to  require  the  inter- 
vention of  the  king's  attorney. 

On  his  return  the  stranger  received  a  visit  from 
the  landlady,  who  handed  him  the  book  wherein,  in 
accordance  with  the  police  regulations,  he  must 
enter  his  name,  his  rank,  the  purpose  of  his  journey 
and  the  place  from  which  he  came. 

"I  will  write  nothing,"  he  said  to  her.  "If 
anyone  should  annoy  you  on  the  subject,  you  can 
say  that  I  refused,  and  you  can  send  the  sub-prefect 
to  me,  for  I  have  no  passport.  You  will  have  a 
great  many  questions  asked  you  about  me,"  he 
continued;  "but  answer  as  you  please;  I  do  not 
wish  you  to  know  anything  about  me,  even  if  you 
should  learn  anything  in  spite  of  me.  If  you  annoy 
me,  I  shall  go  to  the  Poste  on  Place  du  Pont; 
understand  that  I  expect  to  remain  here  a  fortnight. 
It  would  vex  me  exceedingly  to  move,  for  I  know 
that  you  are  a  sister  of  Gothard,  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Simeuse  affair." 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM   ARCIS  I05 

"Enough,  monsieur!"  replied  the  sister  of 
Gothard,  the  steward  of  the  Cinq-Cygnes. 

After  such  a  remark  the  stranger  had  no  difificulty 
in  keeping  the  landlady  with  him  for  about  two 
hours,  and  he  made  her  tell  him  everything  she 
knew  about  Arcis,  about  everybody's  financial 
condition,  about  everybody's  private  affairs  and 
about  all  the  public  officials.  The  next  day  he 
rode  away,  followed  by  the  tiger,  and  did  not  return 
until  midnight.  The  reader  will  now  understand 
Cecile's  jest,  which  Madame  Beauvisage  believed 
to  be  without  foundation. 

Beauvisage  and  Cecile,  although  surprised  at  the 
order  of  the  day  promulgated  by  Severine,  were 
delighted  with  it.  While  his  wife  was  changing 
her  dress  to  go  to  see  Madame  Marion,  Phileas  lis- 
tened to  his  daughter  give  voice  to  the  conjectures 
which  young  girls  so  naturally  form  under  such 
circumstances.  Then,  exhausted  by  his  day's  work, 
he  went  to  bed  when  the  mother  and  the  daughter 
had  left  the  house. 

As  will  be  imagined  by  those  who  know  France, 
or  Champagne — which  is  by  no  means  the  same 
thing — or  small  towns  in  general  if  you  choose, 
there  was  a  wildly  excited  assemblage  at  Madame 
Marion's  that  evening.  The  triumph  of  the  younger 
Giguet  was  looked  upon  as  a  victory  over  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville,  and  the  independence  of 
Arcis  in  election  matters  seemed  to  be  established 
forever.  The  news  of  the  death  of  poor  Charles 
Keller  was  considered  a  judgment  of  heaven,  and 


I06  THE   DEPUTY   FROM   ARCIS 

imposed  silence  upon  all  rival  candidacies.  Antonin 
Goulard,  Frederic  Marest,  Olivier  Vinet,  Monsieur 
Martener,  all  the  functionaries,  in  fact,  who  had 
hitherto  frequented  that  salon,  whose  opinions  they 
did  not  consider  opposed  to  the  government  created 
by  the  popular  will  in  July  1839,  came  thither  as 
usual,  but  one  and  all  inflamed  by  curiosity  con- 
cerning the  attitude  of  the  Beauvisage  family.  The 
salon,  restored  to  its  usual  condition,  did  not  exhibit 
the  slightest  trace  of  the  meeting  which  seemed  to 
have  decided  the  fate  of  Master  Simon. 

At  eight  o*clock,  four  card-tables,  each  provided 
with  four  players,  were  in  full  blast.  The  small 
salon  and  the  dining-room  were  full  of  people. 
Never,  except  on  such  great  occasions  as  balls  or 
f^te-days,  had  Madame  Marion  seen  groups  standing 
about  the  door  of  the  salon — like  the  tail  of  a  comet. 

"This  is  the  dawn  of  favor,"  Olivier  remarked  to 
her,  calling  her  attention  to  that  spectacle,  so 
delightful  to  a  hostess  who  loves  to  receive. 

"No  one  can  say  how  high  Simon  may  rise," 
replied  Madame  Marion.  "These  are  days  when 
men  with  plenty  of  perseverance  and  discretion  may 
aspire  to  anything." 

That  reply  was  designed  much  less  for  Vinet  than 
for  Madame  Beauvisage,  who  entered  the  room  at 
that  moment  with  her  daughter,  and  came  to  con- 
gratulate her  friend. 

In  order  to  avoid  any  indirect  demand  for  her 
daughter's  hand  and  the  necessity  of  interpreting 
empty  words,   Cecile's   mother    took  a  seat   at  a 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM   ARCIS  IO7 

whist  table  and  became  engrossed  in  a  conflict  of 
wits  to  win  a  hundred  fiches.  A  hundred  fiches 
make  fifty  sous!  When  a  card-player  loses  that 
amount  at  Arcis,  people  talk  about  it  for  two  days. 
Cecile  entered  into  conversation  with  Mademoiselle 
Mollot,  one  of  her  dear  friends,  and  seemed  to  be 
seized  with  an  extraordinary  attack  of  affection  for 
her.  Mademoiselle  Mollot  was  the  beauty  of  Arcis 
as  Cecile  was  the  heiress.  Monsieur  Mollot,  the 
clerk  of  the  court  at  Arcis,  occupied  a  house  on  the 
main  square  in  the  same  relative  situation  as 
Beauvisage's  on  Place  du  Pont.  Madame  Mollot, 
who  sat  constantly  at  the  window  of  her  salon  on 
the  ground  floor,  had  acquired,  as  a  result  of  that 
habit,  a  prying  inquisitiveness  which  had  become 
an  inveterate,  chronic  disease.  Madame  Mollot 
devoted  herself  to  spying  upon  her  neighbors  as  a 
nervous  woman  talks  of  her  imaginary  ills,  with 
coquetry  and  passion.  The  moment  that  a  peasant 
entered  the  square  from  the  Brienne  road  she 
watched  him  and  tried  to  divine  for  what  purpose 
he  could  have  come  to  Arcis;  her  mind  was  not  at 
rest  again  until  her  peasant's  visit  was  explained. 
She  passed  her  life  passing  judgment  upon  events, 
men,  things  and  households  in  Arcis.  She  was  a 
tall,  angular  woman,  daughter  of  a  magistrate  at 
Troyes,  and  had  brought  Monsieur  Mollot,  formerly 
Grevin's  head  clerk,  by  way  of  dowry,  a  sum 
sufficiently  large  to  enable  him  to  purchase  the 
ofiRce  of  clerk.  Everyone  knows  that  the  clerk  of  a 
lower  court  has  the  rank    of  a  judge,  just  as  the 


I08  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

chief  clerk  of  a  royal  court  has  the  rank  of  a 
councillor.  Monsieur  Mollot's  position  was  due  to 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  who  had  arranged  the 
matter  at  the  chancellor's  office  for  Grevin's  head 
clerk,  with  a  word.  The  sole  ambition  of  the 
Mollot  family,  father,  mother  and  daughter,  was  to 
arrange  a  match  between  Ernestine  Mollot — an  only 
daughter,  by  the  way — and  Antonin  Goulard.  So 
that  the  refusal  with  which  the  Beauvisages  had 
received  the  sub-prefect's  advances  had  tightened 
the  bond  of  friendship  entertained  by  the  Mollots  for 
the  Beauvisage  family. 

"I  see  somebody  who's  very  impatient!"  said 
Ernestine  to  Cecile,  pointing  to  Simon  Giguet. 
"Oh!  he  would  like  right  well  to  come  and  talk 
with  us;  but  everyone  that  comes  in  feels  obliged  to 
congratulate  him  and  talk  to  him.  More  than  fifty 
times  I've  heard  him  say:  'It  is  less  to  myself,  I 
think,  than  to  my  father  that  I  owe  the  good  wishes 
of  my  fellow-citizens;  but,  in  any  event,  pray 
believe  that  I  shall  devote  myself  to  the  furtherance 
not  only  of  our  general  interests  but  of  your  own 
private  interests.'  I  can  tell  what  he  is  saying  by 
the  movement  of  his  lips,  and  he  looks  at  you  every 
time  with  a  martyr's  eyes." 

"Don't  leave  me  once  this  whole  evening, 
Ernestine,"  replied  Cecile,  "for  I  don't  want  to 
have  to  listen  to  his  periods,  made  up  of  alases 
interspersed  with  sighs." 

"What,  you  don't  want  to  be  the  wife  of  a 
Keeper  of  the  Seals?" 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  IO9 

"Ah!  is  that  as  far  as  they  have  gone?"  laughed 
Cecile. 

"I  assure  you,"  replied  Ernestine,  "that  just 
now,  before  you  came,  Monsieur  Godivet,  the 
recorder,  declared  in  his  enthusiasm  that  Simon 
would  be  Keeper  of  the  Seals  within  three 
years." 

"Do  they  rely  on  the  protection  of  the  Comte  de 
Gondreville  for  that?"  inquired  the  sub-prefect,  as 
he  came  and  sat  down  beside  the  two  girls,  divining 
that  they  were  laughing  at  his  friend  Giguet. 

"Ah!  Monsieur  Antonin,"  said  the  fair  Ernestine 
Mollot,  "you  promised  my  mother  to  find  out  who 
the  handsome  stranger  is;  what  do  you  know  about 
him  that's  new?" 

"To-day's  events,  mademoiselle,  are  vastly  more 
important!"  said  Antonin,  sitting  down  beside 
Cecile,  like  a  diplomat  overjoyed  to  escape  general 
attention  by  taking  refuge  in  a  chat  with  young 
ladies.  "My  whole  life  as  sub-prefect  or  prefect  is 
at  stake." 

"What!  will  you  not  allow  your  friend  Simon  to 
be  unanimously  elected?" 

"Simon  is  my  friend,  but  the  government  is  my 
master,  and  I  intend  to  do  my  utmost  to  prevent 
Simon's  election.  And  Madame  Mollot  here  ought 
to  lend  me  her  aid,  as  the  wife  of  a  man  whose 
duties  connect  him  with  the  government." 

"We  ask  nothing  better  than  to  be  with  you," 
rejoined  the  clerk's  wife.  "Mollot  has  told  me 
what  was  done  here  this  morning,"  she  added  in 


no  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

an  undertone. — "It  was  pitiful!  One  man  and  only 
one  showed  any  talent — that  was  Achille  Pigoult. 
Everybody  agrees  that  he  would  bean  orator  who'd 
make  his  mark  in  the  Chamber;  and  so,  although 
he  has  nothing  and  although  my  daughter's  an  only 
daughter  and  will  have  her  dowry  in  the  first  place, 
which  will  be  sixty  thousand  francs,  and  what  we 
.shall  leave  her,  of  which  I  say  nothing,  and  in 
addition  to  that,  the  property  of  Mollot's  uncle,  the 
miller,  and  my  aunt  Lambert  at  Troyes, — I  give  you 
my  word  that,  if  Monsieur  Achille  Pigoult  should 
choose  to  do  us  the  honor  of  thinking  of  her  and 
should  ask  for  her  hand,  I  would  give  her  to  him,  for 
my  part,  that  is,  if  she  liked  him;  but  the  little  idiot 
doesn't  want  to  marry  except  to  suit  her  own 
fancy. — Mademoiselle  Beauvisage  is  the  one  who 
puts  those  ideas  in  her  head." 

The  sub-prefect  received  that  double  broadside 
like  a  man  who  is  serenely  conscious  that  he  has 
thirty  thousand  francs  a  year  and  who  is  expecting 
a  prefecture. 

"Mademoiselle  is  right,"  he  replied,  glancing  at 
Cecile;  "she  is  rich  enough  to  marry  for  love." 

"Don't  let's  talk  about  marriage,"  said  Ernestine. 
"You  sadden  my  poor  dear  little  Cecile,  who  con- 
fessed to  me  just  now  that,  in  order  to  be  sure  of 
being  married  for  herself  and  not  for  her  fortune,  she 
longed  for  an  adventure  with  a  stranger  who  knew 
nothing  of  Arcis  nor  of  the  inheritances  which  are  to 
make  a  Lady  Croesus  of  her,  and  that  she  would 
like  to  be  the  heroine  of  a  romance  in  which  she 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM   ARCIS  III 

should  be  loved  and  married  for  her  own  sake  in  the 
last  chapter." 

"That  is  very  fine.  I  was  already  aware  that 
mademoiselle  was  as  witty  as  she  is  wealthy!" 
cried  Olivier  Vinet,  joining  the  group  around  the 
young  ladies,  in  contempt  of  the  courtiers  of  Simon 
Giguet,  the  idol  of  the  day. 

"And  that  is  how  it  was,  Monsieur  Goulard," 
said  Cecile,  with  a  smile,  "that  we  came,  by  slow 
degrees,  to  the  subject  of  the  unknown." 

"And  she  took  him  for  the  hero  of  the  novel 
whose  plot  I  have  sketched,"  said  Ernestine. 

"Oh!  oh!"  said  Madame  MoUot,  "a  man  of  fifty! 
For  shame!" 

"How  do  you  know  that  he's  fifty?"  queried 
Olivier  Vinet  with  a  smile. 

"Faith!"  said  Madame  Mollot,  "this  morning  I 
was  so  curious  that  I  took  my  opera-glass — " 

"Bravo!"  said  the  engineer  of  roads  and  bridges, 
who  was  paying  court  to  the  mother  in  order  to  get 
the  daughter. 

"And,"  continued  Madame  Mollot,  "I  saw  the 
unknown  shaving  himself  with  such  elegant  razors! 
— They  are  mounted  in  gold  or  silver-gilt." 

"In  gold!  in  gold!"  said  Vinet.  "When  we  are 
uncertain  about  things,  we  must  imagine  that 
they're  of  the  finest  quality.  So  that  I,  who,  I 
give  you  my  word,  have  never  seen  this  gentleman, 
am  sure  that  he  is  a  count  at  the  very  least." 

That  remark,  which  was  taken  for  a  pun,  called 
forth  immoderate  laughter.    The  small  group  whence 


112  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  laughter  proceeded  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the 
group  of  dowagers  and  the  attention  of  the  flock  of 
black-coated  men  who  surrounded  Simon  Giguet.  As 
for  the  advocate,  he  was  in  despair  at  being  unable 
to  place  his  fortune  and  his  future  at  the  feet  of  the 
wealthy  Cecile. 

"O  father,"  thought  the  deputy  king's  attorney, 
as  he  received  congratulations  on  his  involuntary 
pun,*  "in  what  a  tribunal  you  have  compelled  me 
to  make  my  debut! — A  count  {comic)  with  an  w, 
mesdames  and  mesdemoiselles,"  he  said,  "A  man 
as  distinguished  by  his  birth  as  by  his  manners,  by 
his  wealth  and  by  his  equipages,  a  dandy,  a  buck,  a 
yellow  glcrve!" 

"He  has  the  sweetest  tilbury  in  the  world.  Mon- 
sieur Olivier,"  said  Ernestine. 

"How  was  it,  Antonin,  that  you  didn't  tell  me  this 
morning  that  he  had  a  tilbury,  when  we  were  talking 
aboutthat  conspirator;  why  the  tilbury  is  an  extenuat- 
ing circumstance;  he  can't  possibly  be  a  republican." 

"There  is  nothing  that  I  would  not  do  in  the 
interest  of  your  pleasures,  mesdemoiselles,"  said 
Antonin  Goulard.  "We  propose  to  find  out  whether 
he  is  a  comte  with  an  w,  so  that  you  may  continue 
your  conte  with  an  «." 

"And  perhaps  it  will  eventually  become  a  history," 
said  the  civil  engineer  of  the  arrondissement. 

"For  the  use  of  sub-prefects,"  suggested  Olivier 
Vinet. 


*  The  pun  was  supposed  to  consist  in  the  use  of  the  word  comte  (count) , 
which  has  the  same  pronunciation  as  conte,  a  fable. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 13 

"How  do  you  mean  to  go  about  it?"  inquired 
Madame  Mollot, 

"Oh!  ask  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage  whom  she 
would  take  for  her  husband  if  she  were  compelled 
to  choose  among  the  gentlemen  here  present," 
replied  the  sub-prefect,  "and  she  would  never 
answer! — Allow  the  sovereign  power  to  retain  its 
coquetry. — Never  fear,  mesdemoiselles,  you  shall 
know  within  ten  minutes  whether  the  unknown  is  a 
count  or  a  traveling  salesman." 

Antonin  Goulard  left  the  little  group  of  young 
ladies,  for  it  included,  in  addition  to  Mademoiselle 
Berton,  the  tax-collector's  daughter,  an  insignificant 
young  person  who  played  the  role  of  satellite  to 
Cecile  and  Ernestine,  Mademoiselle  Herbelot,  sister 
of  the  second  notary  of  Arcis,  an  old  maid  of  thirty, 
sour  and  affected,  and  dressed  like  all  old  maids: 
she  wore,  over  a  green  bombazine  dress,  an  em- 
broidered neckerchief,  the  corners  of  which  were 
gathered  at  her  waist  in  front  and  tied  in  the  fashion 
that  prevailed  during  the  Terror. 

"Julien,"  said  the  sub-prefect  to  his  servant,  in 
the  reception-room,  "you  were  employed  atGondre- 
ville  six  months,  do  you  know  how  a  count's  coronet 
is  made?" 

"There  are  pearls  at  the  nine  points." 

"Very  well,  go  to  Le  Mulct  and  try  to  get  a  look 
at  the  tilbury  belonging  to  the  gentleman  who  is 
staying  there;  then  come  back  and  tell  me  what  is 
painted  on  it.  Now,  do  your  work  well  and  notice 
all  the  little  details. — If  you  see  the  little  servant. 


114  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

in  case  you  have  observed  the  nine  pearl  points, 
ask  him  at  what  hour  Monsieur  le  comte  can 
receive  the  sub-prefect  to-morrow.  Don't  drink 
or  gossip,  but  come  back  at  once,  and  when  you 
return  let  me  know  by  showing  yourself  at  the 
door  of  the  salon." 

"Yes,  Monsieur  le  sous-prefet." 

The  inn  of  Le  Mulct,  as  we  have  already  said, 
stands  on  the  square,  opposite  the  angle  of  Madame 
Marion's  garden-wall,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Brienne  road.  So  that  the  solution  of  the  problem 
need  not  long  be  delayed.  Antonin  Goulard  re- 
turned to  his  place  beside  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage. 

"We  talked  so  much  about  the  stranger  here  last 
evening,"  said  Madame  Mollot,  "that  I  dreamed 
about  him  all  night." 

"Aha!"  said  Vinet,  "so  you  still  dream  of  stran- 
gers, fair  lady,  eh?" 

"You're  an  impertinent  jackanapes;  if  I  chose,  I 
could  make  you  dream  of  me!"  she  retorted.  "So 
this  morning,  when  I  got  up — " 

It  may  be  well  to  remark  that  Madame  Mollot  is 
esteemed  in  Arcis  a  witty  woman,  that  is  to  say, 
she  expresses  her  meaning  so  readily  that  she 
misuses  her  advantages.  A  Parisian,  astray  in 
those  regions  as  the  stranger  was,  would  perhaps 
have  considered  her  extremely  loquacious. 

" — I  was  dressing,  naturally,  and  looking  mechani- 
cally straight  before  me — " 

"Out  of  the  window,"  said  Antonin  Goulard. 

"Why,  yes,  my  dressing-room  looks  on  the  square. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  II5 

Now,  you  know  Poupart  has  put  the  stranger  in  one 
of  the  rooms  with  windows  opposite  mine — " 

"One  of  the  rooms,  mamma!"  interposed  Ernest- 
ine. "The  count  occupies  three  rooms!  The  little 
servant,  all  dressed  in  black,  has  the  first;  he  has 
made  a  sort  of  a  salon  of  the  second,  and  the  un- 
known sleeps  in  the  third." 

"He  has  half  of  the  rooms  in  Le  Mulct  then, 
hasn't  he?"  said  Mademoiselle  Herbelot. 

"If  he  has,  mademoiselle,  what  has  that  to  do 
with  his  person?"  said  Madame  Mollot,  angry  at 
being  interrupted  by  an  old  maid.  "We  are  talk- 
ing about  his  person." 

"Don't  interrupt  the  orator,"  said  Olivier  Vinet. 

"As  I  stooped — " 

"Sitting  down,"  said  Antonin  Goulard. 

"Madame  was  doing  as  she  should  do,"  said  Vinet; 
"she  was  dressing  and  looking  at  Ix  Mulet!'* 

In  the  provinces  such  jokes  are  permitted,  because 
everybody  has  been  talked  out  too  long  not  to  have 
recourse  to  the  foolish  remarks  with  which  our 
fathers  amused  themselves  before  the  introduction 
of  English  hypocrisy,  one  of  those  articles  of  mer- 
chandise against  which  customs  officers  are  helpless. 

"Don't  interrupt  the  orator,"  said  Mademoiselle 
Beauvisage,  exchanging  a  smile  with  Vinet. 

" — My  eyes  involuntarily  wandered  to  the  win- 
dow of  the  room  in  which  the  stranger  retired  last 
night — I  don't  know  at  what  time,  for  I  didn't  go 
to  sleep  until  long  after  midnight. — I  have  the  mis- 
fortune to  be  united  to  a  man  who  snores  so  that 


Il6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

he  shakes  the  floors  and  walls.  If  1  go  to  sleep 
first,  I  sleep  so  sound  that  I  don't  hear  anything; 
but  if  Mollot  goes  off  first,  my  night  is  ruined." 

"Then  there  are  the  times  when  you  go 
together!"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  who  had  joined  the 
merry  group.  "I  see  that  you  are  talking  about 
sleep — " 

"Be  quiet,  naughty  boy!"  said  Madame  Mollot 
condescendingly. 

"Do  you  understand?"  Cecile  asked  Ernestine 
in  a  whisper. 

"So  I  say  that  at  one  o'clock  this  morning  he 
hadn't  returned!"  said  Madame  Mollot. 

"He  cheated  you!  The  idea  of  his  returning 
without  your  knowing  it!"  said  Achille  Pigoult. 
"Ah!  that's  a  very  shrewd  fellow,  he'll  put  us  all 
in  a  bag  and  sell  us  on  the  market  place!" 

"To  whom.?"  asked  Vinet. 

"To  a  matter  of  business!  to  an  idea!  to  a 
theory!"  replied  the  notary,  with  whom  the  deputy 
attorney  exchanged  a  sly  smile. 

"Imagine  my  surprise,"  continued  Madame 
Mollot,  "when  I  saw  material  of  such  magnificence, 
such  beauty,  such  splendor  that  I  said  to  myself: 
'He  must  have  a  dressing-gown  of  that  glass-stuff 
that  we  all  went  to  see  at  the  Exposition  of  Manu- 
factures.'— So  I  went  and  got  my  opera-glass  and 
examined  it. — But,  great  God!  what  did  I  see? 
Above  the  dressing-gown,  where  the  head  should 
be,  I  saw  a  huge  mass,  something  like  a  knee. — 
No,  I  cannot  describe  my  curiosity!" 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  II7 

"I  can  imagine  it,"  said  Antonin. 

"No,  you  can't  imagine  it,"  said  Madame  Mollot, 
"for  that  knee—" 

"Ah!  I  understand,"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  with  a 
roar  of  laughter,  "the  stranger  was  making  his 
toilet  as  you  were,  and  you  saw  his  two  knees, — " 

"No,  no!"  cried  Madame  Mollot,  "you  make  me 
say  impossible  things.  The  stranger  was  standing, 
he  was  holding  an  enormous  sponge  over  a  huge 
bowl,  and  that's  all  your  bad  jokes  amount  to, 
Monsieur  Olivier.  I  should  have  recognized  what 
you  think  I  saw — " 

"Oho!  recognized! — you  compromise  yourself, 
madame!"  said  Antonin  Goulard. 

"Pray  let  me  finish,"  retorted  Madame  Mollot. 
"It  was  his  head!  he  was  washing  his  face,  and  he 
hasn't  a  single  hair — " 

"Rash  youth!"  said  Antonin  Goulard.  "He  cer- 
tainly hasn't  come  here  with  any  idea  of  marriage. 
To  get  married  here,  one  must  have  plenty  of  hair. 
It's  in  great  demand." 

"So  I  was  right  in  saying  that  the  unknown  must 
be  fifty  years  old.  Men  seldom  wear  a  wig  until 
they  are  as  old  as  that.  And,  in  fact,  when  his 
toilet  was  finished,  he  opened  his  window;  I  saw  him 
then,  arrayed  in  a  superb  head  of  black  hair,  and  he 
quizzed  and  ogled  me  finely  when  I  went  out  on  my 
balcony.  And  so,  my  dear  Cecile,  you  mustn't 
take  my  gentleman  for  the  hero  of  your  romance." 

"Why  not.!*  Men  of  fifty  aren't  to  be  despised 
when  they  are  counts,"  rejoined  Ernestine. 


Il8  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"He  may  have  some  hair  after  all,"  said  Olivier 
Vinet  maliciously,  "and  in  that  case  he  would 
be  very  eligible.  What  we  should  find  out  is 
whether  he  showed  Madame  Mollot  his  bare  head, 
or—" 

"Be  quiet!"  said  Madame  Mollot. 

Antonin  Goulard  at  once  despatched  Madame 
Marion's  servant  to  Le.  Mulct  with  an  order  for  Julien. 

"Mon  Dieu!  what  difference  does  a  husband's 
age  make.?"  said  Mademoiselle  Herbelot. 

"So  long  as  you  get  one,"  added  the  deputy 
attorney,  who  was  generally  feared  by  reason  of 
his  unfeeling  spitefulness  and  his  mockery. 

"Why,"  replied  the  old  maid,  feeling  the  sting  of 
the  epigram,  "I  should  prefer  a  man  of  fifty, 
who  was  kind  and  indulgent,  and  full  of  considera- 
tion for  his  wife,  to  a  young  man  of  twenty  or 
thereabouts,  without  a  heart,  whose  sharp  wit 
buried  its  teeth  in  everybody,  his  wife  included — " 

"That  does  very  well  for  conversational  pur- 
poses," said  Olivier  Vinet;  "but,  in  order  to  prefer 
an  oldster  of  fifty  to  a  younger  man,  one  must  have 
them  to  choose  between." 

"Ah!"  said  Madame  Mollot,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
war  of  words  between  the  old  maid  and  young 
Vinet,  who  always  went  too  far,  "when  a  woman 
has  had  some  experience  of  life,  she  knows  that 
whether  a  husband  is  fifty  years  old  or  twenty-five 
makes  absolutely  no  difference  so  long  as  she 
esteems  him. — The  important  thing  in  marriage  is  the 
advantage  you  seek  to  gain  by  it.     If  Mademoiselle 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  II9 

Beauvisage  wants  to  go  to  Paris,  to  make  her 
mark  there — and  if  I  were  in  her  place,  I  should 
want  to — I  certainly  wouldn't  take  a  husband  in  the 
town  of  Arcis. — If  I  had  had  the  money  she  will 
have  some  day,  I  would  very  soon  have  given  my 
hand  to  a  count,  to  a  man  who  would  have  placed 
me  in  a  high  position  socially,  and  I  wouldn't  have 
asked  to  see  his  certificate  of  birth." 

"It  would  have  been  enough  for  you  to  see  him 
at  his  toilet,"  said  Vinet  to  Madame  Mollot  in  an 
undertone. 

"But  the  king  makes  counts,  madame!"  observed 
Madame  Marion,  who  had  been  watching  the  group 
of  young  people  for  a  moment  or  two. 

"Ah!  madame,"  rejoined  Vinet,  "there  are  girls 
who  like  counts  already  made." 

"Well,  Monsieur  Antonin,"  said  Cecile,  laughing 
at  Vinet's  sarcasm,  "our  ten  minutes  have  passed, 
and  we  don't  know  yet  whether  the  unknown  is  a 
count." 

"The  government  should  be  infallible!"  said 
Vinet,  glancing  at  Antonin. 

"I  propose  to  keep  my  promise,"  replied  the 
sub-prefect,  as  he  spied  his  servant's  face  at  the 
door  of  the  salon. 

Once  more  he  left  his  seat  beside  Cecile. 

"Are  you  talking  about  the  stranger?"  said 
Madame  Marion.  "Does  anyone  know  anything 
about  him?" 

"No,  madame,"  replied  Achille  Pigoult;  "but  he 
is,  without  knowing  it,  like  an  athlete  in  a  circus. 


I20  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  cynosure  of  the  eyes  of  two  thousand  natives. — 
For  my  part,  I  know  something,"  added  the  little 
notary. 

"Oh!  do  tell  us,  Monsieur  Achille,"  said  Ernestine 
eagerly. 

"His  servant's  name  is  Paradis." 

"Paradis!"  echoed  every  member  of  the  circle. 

"Can  people  be  called  Paradis?"  queried  Madame 
Herbelot,  joining  the  group  and  taking  a  place  beside 
her  sister-in-law. 

"That  tends  to  prove  that  his  master  is  an  angel," 
continued  the  little  notary,  "for,  when  his  servant 
follows  him — you  understand — " 

"It's  the  Paradise  road!  That  is  very  bright," 
said  Madame  Marion,  who  was  bent  upon  enlisting 
Achille  Pigoult  in  her  nephew's  interest. 

"Monsieur,"  Antonin's  servant  was  saying  to  his 
master  meanwhile,  in  the  dining-room,  "the  tilbury 
has  a  crest  on  the  panels — " 

"A  crest!" 

"And  the  arms  are  funny  enough,  I  tell  you, 
monsieur!  there's  a  coronet  with  nine  points,  and 
pearls — " 

"Then  he's  a  count!" 

"And  there's  a  winged  monster  chasing  about 
smashing  things,  exactly  like  a  postilion  who  has 
lost  something!  And  this  is  what  is  written  on  the 
streamer,"  he  said,  taking  a  paper  from  his  pocket. 
"Mademoiselle  Anicette,  the  Princesse  de  Cadig- 
nan's  lady's-maid,  who  just  came,  in  a  carriage, 
you  understand — the  Cinq-Cygne  carriage  is  in  front 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  121 

of  the  door — to  bring  the  gentleman  a  letter,  copied 
it  for  me." 

"Give  it  to  me!" 

The  sub-prefect  read: 

Quo  me  irahit  for  tuna. 

Although  he  was  not  sufficiently  familiar  with 
French  heraldry  to  know  what  family  bore  that 
device  on  their  crest,  Antonin  reflected  that  the 
Cinq-Cygnes  would  hardly  lend  their  chariot  and 
the  Princesse  de  Cadignan  send  a  special  messenger 
except  to  a  member  of  the  most  exalted  nobility. 

"Ah!  so  you  know  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan's 
lady's-maid,  do  you?  You're  a  lucky  fellow!"  said 
Antonin. 

Julien,  a  native  of  the  province,  after  serving  six 
months  at  Gondreville,  had  entered  the  employ  of  the 
sub-prefect,who  wished  to  haveazy^/?-/ram^^  servant. 

"Why,  monsieur,  Anicette  is  my  father's  god- 
daughter. Papa,  who  wanted  to  do  well  by  the 
little  one,  her  father  being  dead,  sent  her  to  Paris 
to  learn  dressmaking,  because  mother  couldn't 
endure  her." 

"Is  she  pretty?" 

"Rather  pretty.  Monsieur  le  sous-prefet.  The 
proof  is  that  she  got  into  trouble  in  Paris;  but  at 
last,  as  she  has  some  talent,  knows  how  to  make 
dresses  and  to  dress  hair,  she  was  taken  into  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan's  service  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Monsieur  Marin,  Monsieur  le  Due  de  Mau- 
frigneuse's  first  valet  de  chambre." 


122  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"What  did  she  say  about  Cinq-Cygne?  Are 
there  many  people  there?" 

"A  good  many,  monsieur.  There's  the  Princesse 
de  Cadignan  and  Monsieur  d'Arthez,  the  Due  and 
Duchesse  de  Maufrigneuse,  the  young  marquis — in 
fact,  the  chateau  is  full. — Monseigneur  the  Bishop 
of  Troyes  is  expected  this  evening." 

"Monseigneur  Troubert? — Ah!  I  would  like  right 
well  to  know  if  he  is  to  stay  there  some  time." 

"Anicette  thinks  so,  and  she  fancies  that  mon- 
seigneur has  come  on  account  of  the  count  who  is 
staying  at  Le  Mulct.  They  expect  still  more 
people.  The  coachman  said  that  there's  a  good 
deal  of  talk  about  the  elections.  Monsieur  le  Presi- 
dent Michu  is  to  pass  some  days  there." 

"Try  to  induce  this  maid  to  come  into  town,  on 
some  pretext  or  other. — Have  you  any  designs  on 
her?" 

"If  she  had  anything  of  her  own,  I  wouldn't  say 
no! — She's  very  sly." 

"Tell  her  to  come  to  see  you  at  the  sub-pre- 
fecture." 

"Very  good,  monsieur,  I  will  do  it." 

"Don't  mention  me  to  her!  she  wouldn't  come; 
offer  her  a  good  place." 

"Ah!  monsieur, — Ihave  beenemployed atGondre- 
ville." 

"You  don't  know  the  reason  for  this  message  from 
Cinq-Cygne  at  this  time  of  night?  it's  half -past  nine. " 

"It  seems  that  it's  something  very  urgent,  for  the 
count,  who  just  returned  from  Gondreville — " 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  123 

"The  stranger  has  been  to  Gondreville?" 

"He  dined  there,  Monsieur  le  sous-prefet.  And — 
it  will  make  you  laugh! — the  little  servant  is,  with 
all  respect,  drunk  as  a  fiddler.  He  drank  so  much 
champagne  in  the  servants'  quarters  that  he  can't 
stand  on  his  legs;  they  must  have  pressed  him  to 
drink  as  a  joke." 

"Well,  what  about  the  count.?" 

"The  count  had  gone  to  bed,  and  when  he  read 
the  letter  he  got  up  and  is  dressing  now.  They  are 
putting  his  horse  in  the  tilbury.  The  count  is  going 
to  pass  the  night  at  Cinq-Cygne." 

"He  must  be  some  very  great  personage,  then?" 

"Oh!  yes,  monsieur;  for  Gothard,  the  steward 
at  Cinq-Cygne,  came  to  see  his  brother-in-law 
Poupart  this  morning,  and  urged  him  to  keep  his 
mouth  closed  tight  concerning  this  gentleman,  and 
to  serve  him  as  if  he  was  a  king — " 

"Can  Vinet  be  right?"  said  the  sub-prefect  to 
himself.     "Is  there  a  conspiracy  under  all  this?" 

"It  was  Due  Georges  de  Maufrigneuse  who  sent 
Monsieur  Gothard  to  Ix  Mulet.  The  explanation  of 
Poupart's  coming  to  that  meeting  here  this  morning 
is  that  this  count  wanted  him  to  come.  If  he 
should  tell  Poupart  to  go  to  Paris  to-night,  Poupart 
would  start  right  off.  Gothard  told  his  brother-in- 
law  to  turn  things  upside-down  for  this  gentleman, 
and  to  laugh  at  all  inquisitive  people." 

"If  you  can  get  Anicette,  don't  fail  to  let  me 
know!"  said  Antonin. 

"But  I  can  very  well  go  to  see  her  at  Cinq-Cygne, 


124  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

if  you  choose  to  give  me  an  errand  to  your  estate 
at  Val-Preux,  monsieur." 

"That's  an  idea.  You  can  take  advantage  of  the 
carriage  being  here  to  be  driven  there.  But  what 
have  you  to  say  of  the  little  servant?" 

"He's  a  good  one,  that  little  fellow,  Monsieur  le 
sous-prefet!  Just  fancy,  monsieur,  that,  drunk  as 
he  is,  he  just  rode  off  on  his  master's  magnificent 
English  horse,  a  thoroughbred  that  travels  seven 
leagues  an  hour,  to  carry  a  letter  to  Troyes,  so  that 
it  will  be  in  Paris  to-morrow. — And  he's  only  nine 
and  a  half!     What  will  he  be  at  twenty?" 

The  sub-prefect  listened  abstractedly  to  this  last 
administrative  gossip.  Julien  chattered  on  for 
several  minutes.  Antonin  listened  to  him,  thinking 
all  the  time  of  the  stranger. 

"Wait,"  he  said  to  his  servant. 

"What  a  mess!"  he  muttered,  as  he  walked 
slowly  back  to  the  salon.  "A  man  who  dines  with 
the  Comte  de  Gondreville  and  passes  the  night  at 
Cinq-Cygne! — There's  a  mystery,  on  my  word!" 

"Well?"  cried  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage's  circle 
with  one  voice,  when  he  reappeared. 

"Well,  he's  a  count,  and  of  an  old  stock,  I 
promise  you!" 

"Oh!  how  I  would  like  to  see  him!"  cried 
Cecile. 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  Antonin  with  a  smile, 
glancing  mischievously  at  Madame  Mollot,  "he  is 
tall  and  well-built,  and  doesn't  wear  a  wig!  His 
little  servant  was  as    drunk    as   the   twenty-two 


THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS  125 

cantons;  they  had  filled  him  with  champagne  in 
the  servants'  quarters  at  Gondreville,  and  that  child 
of  nine  answered  Julien  with  the  lofty  pride  of  an 
old  servant  when  Julien  mentioned  his  master's 
wig:  'My  master  wear  a  wig!  I  would  leave  him! — 
He  dyes  his  hair,  that's  bad  enough!'  " 

"Your  opera-glass  magnified  objects  tremen- 
dously," said  Achille  Pigoult  to  Madame  Mollot,  who 
began  to  laugh. 

"However,  the  handsome  count's  tiger,  drunk  as 
he  is,  is  off  to  Troyes  on  horseback  to  carry  a 
letter,  and,  although  it's  dark,  he'll  be  there  in  an 
hour  and  a  quarter." 

"I  would  like  to  see  the  tiger,  for  my  part,"  said 
Vinet. 

"If  he  dined  at  Gondreville,"  said  Cecile,  "we 
shall  learn  who  this  count  is,  for  grandpapa  is  going 
there  to-morrow  morning." 

"What  will  seem  strange  to  you,"  said  Antonin 
Goulard,  "is  that  Mademoiselle  Anicette,  the 
Princesse  de  Cadignan's  maid,  has  been  sent  from 
Cinq-Cygne  with  a  letter  for  the  unknown,  and 
that  he  is  going  to  pass  the  night  there." 

"Aha!"  said  Vinet,  "he's  not  a  man  at  all,  he's 
a  devil,  a  phoenix!  He  is  the  friend  of  two  chateaux, 
he  would  poculer — "* 

"Fie,  monsieur!"  said  Madame  Mollot,  "you  use 
such  words — " 

"The  Latinity  of  poculer,  madame,  is  most 
unexceptionable,"  rejoined    the    deputy    attorney 

*  Poculer— i.  e.,  to  tipple. 


126  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

gravely;  "he  would  poculer,  as  I  say,  with  King 
Louis-Philippe  in  the  morning  and  feast  with 
Charles  X.  at  Holyrood  Castle  in  the  evening. 
There's  only  one  motive  that  will  permit  a  man  to 
visit  both  camps,  the  Montagues  and  the  Capulets. 
— Ah!  I  know  who  the  man  is;  he's  the  manager  of 
the  railroad  from  Paris  to  Lyon,  or  from  Paris  to 
Dijon,  or  from  Troyes  to  Montereau." 

"True!"  said  Antonin.  "You  have  got  it. 
Nobody  but  bankers,  manufacturers  or  speculators 
are  made  welcome  everywhere." 

"Yes,  at  this  moment  the  greatest  names,  the 
greatest  families,  the  old  and  new  peerage  are 
rushing  at  the  double-quick  into  stock  companies!" 
said  Achille  Pigoult. 

"Francs  attract  the  Franks,"  said  Olivier  Vinet, 
without  a  smile. 

"You  can  hardly  be  called  the  olive  branch 
(olivief)  of  peace,"  said  Madame  Mollot  laugh- 
ingly. 

"But  isn't  it  demoralizing  to  see  the  names  of 
Verneuil,  Maufrigneuse  and  Herouville  coupled 
with  those  of  the  Du  Tillets  and  Nucingens  in 
speculations  that  are  quoted  on  the  Bourse?" 

"Our  unknown  is  evidently  a  railroad  not  yet  of 
age,"  said  Vinet. 

"Well,  all  Arcis  is  going  to  be  turned  topsy-turvy 
to-morrow,"  said  Achille  Pigoult.  "I  am  going  to 
see  this  gentleman  in  order  to  be  employed  as  notary 
in  the  transaction!  There  will  be  two  thousand 
deeds  to  draw." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS        1 27 

"Our  romance  is  becoming  a  locomotive,"  said 
Ernestine  sadly  to  Cecile. 

"A  count  with  a  railroad  in  his  pocket  is  all  the 
more  tempting  conjugally  considered,"  observed 
Pigoult,  "but  is  he  a  bachelor?" 

"Oh!  I  shall  find  that  out  to-morrow  from  grand- 
papa," said  Cecile  with  ostentatious  enthusiasm. 

"Ah!  an  excellent  joke!"  cried  Madame  Marion 
with  a  forced  laugh.  "What,  Cecile,  my  little 
kitten,  are  you  thinking  about  the  unknown?" 

"Why,  the  husband  is  always  the  unknown," 
said  Olivier  Vinet  hastily,  making  a  sign  to 
Mademoiselle  Beauvisage,  which  she  understood 
perfectly. 

"Why  shouldn't  I  think  of  him?"  she  asked; 
"there's  nothing  compromising  in  that.  And  then 
he  is,  so  these  gentlemen  say,  either  some  great 
speculator,  or  some  great  nobleman. — Faith!  either 
of  the  two  would  suit  me.  I  love  Paris!  I  love  to 
have  a  carriage,  a  fine  house,  a  box  at  the  Italiens, 
etc." 

"That's  right,"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  "when  you 
dream,  you  mustn't  deny  yourself  anything.  How- 
ever, if  I  were  fortunate  enough  to  be  your  brother, 
I'd  marry  you  to  the  young  Marquis  de  Cinq-Cygne, 
who  seems  to  me  to  be  a  young  blade  that  will 
make  the  gold  pieces  dance  and  laugh  at  his 
mother's  aversion  for  the  actors  in  the  drama  in 
which  our  worthy  president's  father  so  unluckily 
lost  his  life." 

"It  would  be  easier  for  you  to  become  Prime 


128  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Minister!"  said  Madame  Marion;  "there  will  never 
be  an  alliance  between  the  granddaughter  of  the 
Grevins  and  the  Cinq-Cygne  family!" 

"Romeo  came  very  near  marrying  Juliet!"  said 
Achille  Pigoult,  "and  mademoiselle  is  lovelier 
than—" 

"Oh!  if  you're  going  to  draw  on  the  opera!" 
artlessly  observed  Herbelot  the  notary,  who  had 
just  finished  his  game  of  whist. 

"My  confrere,"  said  Pigoult,  "is  not  very  well 
posted  in  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages." 

"Come,  Malvina!"  said  the  stout  notary,  without 
repljnng  to  his  younger  confrere's  remark. 

"TelJ  me.  Monsieur  Antonin,"  Cecile  said  to  the 
sub-prefect,  "you  spoke  of  Mademoiselle  Anicette, 
the  Princesse  de  Cadignan's  maid — do  you  know 
her?" 

"No,  but  Julien  knows  her;  she's  his  father's 
god-daughter,  and  they  are  on  very  good  terms." 

"Oh!  then,  do  try,  through  Julien,  to  get  her  for 
us;  mamma  wouldn't  think  about  wages." 

"To  hear,  mademoiselle,  is  to  obey!  as  they  say 
to  despots  in  Asia,"  replied  the  sub-prefect.  "You 
will  see  what  efforts  I  will  put  forth  to  serve 
you!" 

He  left  the  room  to  order  Julien  to  overtake  the 
carriage  which  was  returning  to  Cinq-Cygne,  and 
to  lure  Anicette  away  at  any  price.  At  that 
moment  Simon  Giguet,  who  had  finished  his  verbal 
curvetting  before  all  the  influential  men  in  Arcis, 
and  who  considered  himself  certain  of  his  election. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  129 

joined  the  circle  that  surrounded  Cecile  and  Made- 
moiselle Mollot.  The  evening  was  far  advanced. 
The  clock  was  striking  ten.  Having  consumed 
enormous  quantities  of  cake  and  numberless  glasses 
of  orgeat,  punch,  lemonade  and  divers  syrups,  those 
guests  who  had  come  to  Madame  Marion's  on  that 
occasion  for  political  reasons  only,  and  who  were 
not  accustomed  to  those  walls,  which  they  were 
wont  to  consider  aristocratic,  took  their  leave  the 
more  promptly  because  they  never  sat  up  so  late. 
The  party  thereupon  assumed  a  more  private 
character.  Simon  Giguet  hoped  that  he  might  be 
able  to  exchange  a  few  words  with  Cecile,  and  he 
looked  at  her  with  a  triumphant  expression.  That 
expression  irritated  Cecile. 

"My  dear  fellow,"  Antonin  said  to  Simon,  as  he 
observed  the  halo  of  success  gleaming  around  his 
face,  "you  come  at  a  moment  when  the  people  of 
Arcis  have  been  put  in  the  wrong — " 

"Altogether  in  the  wrong,"  interposed  Ernestine, 
as  Cecile  nudged  her  elbow.  "Cecile  and  I  are 
mad  over  the  unknown:  we  are  fighting  for 
him!" 

"In  the  first  place,  he's  not  an  unknown  any 
longer,"  said  Cecile,  "he's  a  count!" 

"What  an  impostor!"  replied  Simon  with  a  con- 
temptuous sneer. 

"Would  you  say  that.  Monsieur  Simon,"  retorted 

Cecile,  piqued  by  his  manner,  "to  the  face  of  a  man 

to  whom  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan  has  just  sent 

her  servants  with  a  letter,  who  dined  at  Gondreville 

9 


130  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

to-day  and  is  going  to  pass  this  very  night  at  the 
Marquise  de  Cinq-Cygne's?" 

This  was  said  so  earnestly  and  in  such  a  severe 
tone  that  Simon  was  disconcerted. 

"Ah!  mademoiselle,"  said  Olivier  Vinet,  "if  we 
should  say  to  one  another's  faces  what  we  all  say 
behind  one  another's  backs,  society  would  no  longer 
be  possible.  The  pleasures  of  society,  especially  in 
the  provinces,  consist  in  speaking  ill  of  one  another. ' ' 

"Monsieur  Simon  is  jealous  of  your  enthusiasm 
for  the  unknown  count,"  said  Ernestine. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Cecile,  "that  Monsieur 
Simon  has  no  right  to  be  jealous  of  any  of  my  senti- 
ments." 

With  those  words,  uttered  with  an  accent  calcu- 
lated to  crush  Simon,  Cecile  rose;  everyone  made 
way  for  her,  and  she  went  to  her  mother,  who  was 
settling  her  whist  accounts. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  you  are  very  hard  on  my 
poor  Simon,  my  love!"  said  Madame  Marion,  run- 
ning after  the  heiress. 

"What  has  she  done,  dear  little  puss?"  inquired 
Madame  Beauvisage. 

"Mamma,  Monsieur  Simon  insulted  my  stranger 
with  the  word  impostor," 

Simon  followed  his  aunt  and  arrived  upon  the 
battlefield  of  the  card-table.  Thus  the  four  persons 
whose  interests  were  so  momentous  were  assembled 
in  the  centre  of  the  salon,  Cecile  and  her  mother  on 
one  side  of  the  table,  Madame  Marion  and  her 
nephew  on  the  other. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  131 

"In  truth,  madame,"  said  Simon,  "you  must 
agree  that  a  person  must  needs  be  very  desirous  to  put 
another  in  the  wrong  to  be  angry  at  what  I  have  just 
said  concerning  a  gentleman  of  whom  all  Arcis  is 
talking  and  who  is  staying  at  Le  Mulet.'^ 

"Do  you  consider  that  he  is  entering  into  competi- 
tion with  you?"  said  Madame  Beau  visage  jocosely. 

"I  should  certainly  be  exceedingly  ill-disposed 
toward  him,  if  he  should  be  the  cause  of  the  slightest 
misunderstanding  between  Mademoiselle  Cecile  and 
myself,"  said  the  candidate,  with  an  imploring 
glance  at  the  girl. 

"You  spoke  in  a  very  cutting  tone  when  you  pro- 
nounced your  judgment,  monsieur,  proving  that  you 
propose  to  be  very  despotic,  and  you  are  right;  if  you 
want  to  be  a  minister,  you  must  be  prepared  to 
cut—" 

At  that  moment  Madame  Marion  took  Madame 
Beauvisage's  arm  and  led  her  to  a  sofa.  Cecile, 
being  left  alone,  returned  to  the  circle  she  had  just 
quitted,  to  avoid  listening  to  such  reply  as  Simon 
might  make,  and  the  candidate,  looking  very  foolish, 
remained  by  the  table,  where  he  amused  himself  by 
playing  mechanically  with  the  counters  —fiches. 

"There  are  such  things  as  consolation  prizes — 
fiches  de  consolation," — said  Olivier  Vinet,  who  was 
following  the  little  scene. 

That  remark,  although  made  in  an  undertone, 
was  overheard  by  Cecile,  who  could  not  refrain 
from  laughing. 

"My  dear  friend,"  said  Madame  Marion,  in  a  low 


132  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

voice,  to  Madame  Beau  visage,  "you  see  that  nothing 
can  prevent  my  nephew's  election  now." 

"I  am  overjoyed  for  you  and  for  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,"  said  Severine. 

"My  nephew,  my  dear,  will  rise  very  high. — This 
is  why  I  say  so:  his  own  fortune,  with  that  his 
father  will  leave  him,  and  mine,  will  give  him  about 
thirty  thousand  francs  a  year.  When  a  man  is  in 
the  Chamber  and  has  such  a  fortune  as  that,  he  can 
aspire  to  anything." 

"He  will  have  our  admiration,  madame,  and  our 
best  wishes  will  follow  him  in  his  political  career; 
but—" 

"I  don't  ask  you  for  an  answer!"  exclaimed 
Madame  Marion,  hastily  interrupting  her  friend.  "I 
simply  ask  you  to  reflect  upon  this  proposition.  Are 
our  children  suited  to  each  other?  can  we  make  a 
match?  We  will  live  in  Paris  during  the  whole 
session;  and  who  can  say  that  the  Deputy  from 
Arcis  will  not  be  permanently  installed  there  in  a 
fine  berth  in  the  magistracy? — See  how  Monsieur 
Vinet  of  Provins  has  made  his  way!  People  blamed 
Mademoiselle  de  Chargeboeuf  for  marrying  him; 
before  long  she'll  be  the  wife  of  a  Keeper  of  the  Seals, 
and  Monsieur  Vinet  will  be  a  peer  of  France  when 
he  chooses." 

"Madame,  I  am  not  free  to  marry  my  daughter 
to  suit  my  own  inclinations.  In  the  first  place  her 
father  and  I  propose  to  leave  her  perfect  freedom  of 
choice.  If  she  should  choose  to  marry  this  unknown, 
we  should  give  our  consent,  provided  he's  a  proper 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 33 

husband  for  her.  Then,  too,  Cecile  is  entirely 
dependent  on  her  grandfather,  who  will  agree,  in 
the  contract,  to  give  her  a  house  in  Paris,  the 
Beauseant  mansion,  which  he  bought  for  us  ten 
years  ago,  and  which  is  worth  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand francs  to-day.  It's  one  of  the  finest  houses  in 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain.  Besides  that  he  has  set 
aside  two  hundred  thousand  francs  to  cover  the 
expense  of  setting  up  an  establishment  there.  A 
grandfather  who  acts  in  that  way  and  who  can  also 
induce  my  mother-in-law  to  make  some  sacrifices 
for  her  granddaughter  in  view  of  an  advantageous 
marriage,  has  the  right  to  advise." 

"Most  certainly!"  said  Madame  Marion,  stupefied 
by  this  confidential  communication  which  made  her 
nephew's  marriage  to  Cecile  vastly  more  difificult  to 
arrange. 

"Even  if  Cecile  had  no  reason  to  expect  anything 
from  her  grandfather  Grevin,"  continued  Madame 
Beauvisage,  "she  should  not  marry  without  consult- 
ing him.  The  son-in-law  my  father  selected  is  dead; 
I  do  not  know  his  present  intentions.  If  you  have 
any  proposition  to  make,  go  and  see  my  father." 

"Very  well,  I  will  go,"  said  Madame  Marion. 

Madame  Beauvisage  made  a  sign  to  Cecile  and 
they  both  left  the  salon. 


The  next  day,  Antonin  and  Frederic  Marest, 
Monsieur  Martener  and  Olivier  met  as  usual,  after 
dinner,  under  the  lindens  of  the  Avenue  of  Sighs, 
and  smoked  their  cigars  as  they  sauntered  along 
together.  That  after-dinner  promenade  is  one  of 
the  petty  amusements  of  provincial  authorities  when 
they  are  on  good  terms  with  one  another. 

After  they  had  taken  several  turns  Simon  Giguet 
joined  them,  and  said  to  the  sub-prefect  with  a 
mysterious  air: 

"You  ought  to  be  true  to  an  old  schoolmate  who 
means  to  procure  the  rosette  of  an  officer  in  the 
Legion  of  Honor  and  a  prefecture  for  you!" 

"You're  beginning  your  political  career  already," 
said  Antonin  with  a  laugh;  "are  you  trying  to  bribe 
me,  you  fierce  puritan?" 

"Will  you  assist  me?" 

"My  dear  fellow,  you  know  very  well  that  Bar- 
sur-Aube  comes  here  to  vote.  Who  can  promise  a 
majority  under  those  circumstances?  My  colleague 
at  Bar-sur-Aube  would  complain  if  I  shouldn't  exert 
myself  as  much  as  he  does  to  further  the  wishes  of 
the  government,  and  your  promise  is  conditional, 
whereas  my  removal  would  be  certain." 

"But  I  have  no  competitors!" 

"You  think  not,"  said  Antonin,  "but 

"  'Thfy  will  come  forward,  doubt  it  not.'" 
(135) 


136  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"And  that  aunt  of  mine  knows  that  I  am  on 
burning  coals  and  yet  she  doesn't  come!"  cried 
Giguet.  "Oh!  these  last  three  hours  have  been 
like  three  years!" 

His  secret  escaped  him !  He  admitted  to  his  friend 
that  Madame  Marion  had  gone  to  propose  him  to  old 
Grevin  as  Cecile's  future  husband.  The  two  friends 
had  walked  as  far  as  the  Brienne  road,  opposite 
Le  Mulct  While  the  advocate  watched  the  sloping 
street  up  which  his  aunt  would  come  from  the 
bridge,  the  sub-prefect  examined  the  gullies  that  the 
rain  had  made  in  the  square.  Arcis  is  not  paved 
with  sandstone  or  pebble,  for  the  plains  of  Cham- 
pagne furnish  no  suitable  building  material,  much 
less  flints  large  enough  to  metal  roads.  One  or  two 
streets  and  some  isolated  spots  have  the  centre 
graded  and  crowned,  but  all  the  others  are  imper- 
fectly macadamized,  and  that  fact  alone  is  enough 
to  indicate  their  condition  in  rainy  weather.  The 
sub-prefect  pretended,  for  the  sake  of  appearances, 
to  be  expending  his  mental  energy  upon  that 
important  subject,  but  he  did  not  lose  a  single 
symptom  of  the  suffering  depicted  on  his  companion's 
altered  features. 

At  that  moment  the  stranger  returned  from  the 
chateau  de  Cinq-Cygne,  where  he  had  evidently 
passed  the  night.  Goulard  determined  to  solve  for 
himself  the  mystery  that  enveloped  the  unknown, 
who  was  enveloped  physically  in  the  then  fashion- 
able style  of  overcoat  called  a  paletot.  A  cloak, 
thrown  over  his  legs  like  a  rug,  concealed  the  lower 


AT    THE  INN  OF  LE  MULET 


And  he  handed  the  sidj-prefect  a  letter  thus  con- 
ceived : 

[Private.) 

PREFECTURE  OF  THE  AUBE 

^^ Monsieur  le  Sous-prefet, 

"Vou  ivill  take  measures  with  the  bearer  of  these  pres- 
ents concerni?ig  the  Arcis  election,  and  yo7i  will  comply 
with  zuJiatever  reqjiests  he  may  ma/ce  of  you.  I  urge  you 
to  observe  tlie  utmost  discretion  and  to  treat  him  with  the 
cojisideration  due  to  his  rank.'' 


THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS  1 37 

part  of  his  body.  Lastly,  a  huge  muffler  of  red 
cashmere  covered  his  face  to  his  eyes.  His  hat, 
although  perched  jauntily  on  the  side  of  his  head, 
did  not  appear  in  the  least  ridiculous.  Never  was 
mystery  so  mysteriously  swathed  and  bundled  up. 

"Look  out!"  cried  the  tiger,  who  rode  ahead  of 
the  tilbury. — "Open  the  gate,  Papa  Poupart!"  he 
cried  in  a  shrill,  piping  voice. 

The  three  servants  of  Ix  Mulet  flocked  to  the 
gate,  and  the  tilbury  passed  in,  without  anybody's 
having  succeeded  in  catching  a  glimpse  of  a  single 
one  of  the  stranger's  features.  The  sub-prefect 
followed  the  tilbury  as  far  as  the  gateway  of  the 
inn. 

"Maman  Poupart,"  said  Antonin,  "will  you  kindly 
ask  your  Monsieur — Monsieur — ?" 

"I  don't  know  his  name,"  said  Gothard's  sister. 

"You  are  doing  wrong!  the  police  ordinances  are 
explicit,  and  Monsieur  Groslier  isn't  a  trifler,  like 
most  commissioners  of  police  who  have  nothing  to 
do." 

"Innkeepers  never  do  wrong  at  election  time," 
said  the  tiger,  as  he  dismounted. 

"I  must  repeat  that  remark  to  Vinet,"  said  the 
sub-prefect  to  himself. — "Go  and  ask  your  master 
if  he  can  receive  the  sub-prefect  of  Arcis." 

And  Antonin  rejoined  the  three  loungers,  who 
had  halted  at  the  end  of  the  avenue  when  they  saw 
the  sub-prefect  conversing  with  the  tiger,  who  was 
already  famous  in  Arcis  by  reason  of  his  name  and 
his  repartees. 


138  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Monsieur  requests  Monsieur  le  sous-prefet  to 
come  to  iiis  room,  he  will  be  pleased  to  receive 
him,"  said  Paradis  to  the  sub-prefect  a  few  moments 
later. 

"My  boy,"  said  Olivier,  "how  much  does  your 
master  pay  a  youngster  of  your  make  and  your 
wit?" 

"Pay  me,  monsieur? — what  do  you  take  me  for? 
— Monsieur  le  comte  allows  himself  to  be  robbed, 
and  I  am  satisfied." 

"That  child  is  in  a  good  school,"  said  Frederic 
Marest. 

"The  high  school.  Monsieur  le  Procureur  du 
Roi!"  retorted  Paradis,  leaving  the  five  friends 
utterly  astounded  by  his  self-possession. 

"What  a  Figaro!"  cried  Vinet. 

"You  mustn't  depreciate  us,"  rejoined  the  child. 
"My  master  calls  me  little  Robert  Macaire.  Since 
we've  known  how  to  raise  funds,  we  are  Figaros 
plus  the  savings-bank." 

"What  do  you  earn?" 

"There  are  races  in  which  1  earn  a  thousand 
crowns — without  selling  my  master,  monsieur." 

"Sublime  child!"  said  Vinet,  "he  knows  the 
turf—" 

"And  all  the  gentlemen  riders^"  said  the  child, 
putting  out  his  tongue  at  Vinet. 

"The  Paradise  road  is  a  long  one,"  said  Frederic 
Marest. 

Introduced  by  the  host  of  Le  Mulei,  Goulard 
found  the  unknown  in  the  room  he  had  taken  for  a 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 39 

parlor,  and  was  subjected  to  the  stare  of  a  monocle 
held  in  the  eye  at  a  most  impertinent  angle. 

"Monsieur,"  said  Antonin  Goulard  with  some- 
thing like  haughtiness,  "I  have  just  learned  from 
the  innkeeper's  wife  that  you  refused  to  comply 
with  the  police  ordinances,  and,  as  I  make  no  doubt 
that  you  are  a  person  of  distinction,  I  have  come 
myself — " 

"Is  your  name  Goulard?"  demanded  the  stranger 
in  a  nasal  voice. 

"I  am  sub-prefect,  monsieur — "  replied  Antonin. 

"Did  not  your  father  belong  to  the  Simeuse 
faction?" 

"And  1,  monsieur,  belong  to  the  goverment;  that's 
the  difference  between  those  days  and  these." 

"You  have  a  servant  named  Julien,  who  is  try- 
ing to  carry  off  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan's 
maid?" 

"Monsieur,  I  allow  no  one  to  speak  to  me  in  that 
way,"  said  Goulard,  "you  mistake  my  character — " 

"And  you  wish  to  know  mine!"  retorted  the 
stranger.  "I  make  myself  known  to  you  there- 
fore. You  may  enter  on  the  innkeeper's  register: — 
'Impertinent,  Paris,  Age  doubtful.  Inquisitive,  Trav- 
eling for  pleasure.' — It  would  be  a  very  popular  in- 
novation in  France  to  adopt  the  English  method 
of  allowing  people  to  go  and  come  according  to 
their  good  pleasure,  without  pestering  them  to 
death,  without  demanding  their  papers  every  min- 
ute in  the  day.  I  have  no  passport,  what  will 
you  do  to  me?" 


I40  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Monsieur  le  procureur  du  roi  is  out  yonder, 
under  the  lindens,"  said  the  sub-prefect. 

"Monsieur  Marest? — Pray  wish  him  good-morn- 
ing for  me." 

"But  who  are  you.?" 

"Whoever  you  please  to  have  me,  my  dear 
Monsieur  Goulard,"  said  the  stranger,  "for  it  is 
for  you  to  decide  in  what  capacity  I  shall  figure 
in  this  arrondissement.  Give  me  some  advice  as 
to  my  conduct.     Here,  read  this." 

And  he  handed  the  sub-prefect  a  letter  thus 
conceived: 

(Private.) 

PREFECTURE  OF  THE  AUBE. 
"Monsieur  le  Sous-prefet, 

"You  will  take  measures  with  the  bearer  of  these  pres- 
ents concerning  the  Arcis  election,  and  you  will  comply 
with  whatever  requests  he  may  make  of  you.  I  urge  you  to 
observe  the  utmost  discretion  and  to  treat  him  with  the  con- 
sideration due  to  his  rank." 

The  letter  was  written  and  signed  by  the  prefect. 

"You  hit  upon  the  right  thing  by  accident!" 
said  the  stranger,  taking  back  the  letter. 

Antonin  Goulard,  impressed  by  his  interlocutor's 
gentlemanly  air  and  aristocratic  manners,  became 
respectful. 

"How  so,  monsieur?"  he  inquired. 

"By  trying  to  corrupt  Anicette.  She  came  and 
told  us  of  the  attempts  made  by  Julien,  whom 
you  might   call    Julien   the   Apostate,  for   he   was 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I4I 

conquered  by  young  Paradis,  my  tiger,  and  he  finally 
confessed  that  you  wanted  to  place  Anicette  in 
the  service  of  the  richest  family  in  Arcis.  Now, 
as  the  Beauvisage  family  is  the  richest  in  Arcis, 
I  have  no  doubt  that  Mademoiselle  Cecile  is  the 
one  who  wishes  to  possess  that  treasure — " 

"Yes,  monsieur." 

"Very  well,  Anicette  will  enter  the  Beauvisages* 
service  this  morning." 

He  whistled.  Paradis  appeared  so  quickly  that 
the  stranger  said  to  him: 

"You  were  listening!" 

"In  spite  of  myself,  Monsieur  le  Comte;  the  par- 
titions are  like  paper.  If  Monsieur  le  Comte 
wishes,  I  will  go  to  an  upper  room." 

"No,  you  may  listen,  it's  your  right.  It's  my 
place  to  speak  low  when  I  don't  want  you  to  know 
my  business. — You  will  return  to  Cinq-Cygne  and 
give  this  twenty-franc  piece  to  little  Anicette  from 
me. — Julien  will  seem  to  have  bribed  her  on  your 
behalf,"  he  said,  turning  to  Antonin.  "That  piece 
of  gold  informs  her  that  she  may  go  with  Julien. 
Anicette  may  be  of  great  assistance  in  securing 
the  success  of  our  candidate." 

"Anicette?" 

"For  thirty-two  years,  monsieur,  ladies'  maids 
have  served  my  ends.— I  had  my  first  adventure 
at  thirteen,  precisely  like  the  Regent  our  king's 
grandfather  in  the  fourth  generation. — Do  you  know 
the  amount  of  Mademoiselle  Beauvisage's  fortune?" 

"It   is   impossible    to    know  the   amount  of   it, 


142  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

monsieur;  yesterday,  for  instance,  at  Madame 
Marion's,  Madame  Severine  said  that  Monsieur 
Grevin,  Cecile's  grandfather,  would  give  his  grand- 
daughter the  Hotel  Beauseant  and  two  hundred 
thousand  francs  for  a  wedding  present." 

The  stranger's  eyes  expressed  no  surprise;  he 
seemed  to  look  upon  it  as  a  very  moderate  fortune. 

"Do  you  know  Arcis  well?"  he  asked  Goulard. 

"I  am  the  sub-prefect  and  I  was  born  in  the 
province." 

"Very  well,  how  can  one  baffle  curiosity  here?" 

"Why,  by  gratifying  it.  For  instance.  Monsieur 
le  Comte  has  his  baptismal  name:  let  him  put  that 
on  the  register  with  his  title." 

"Very  good;  Comte  Maxime." 

"And  if  monsieur  will  assume  the  character  of 
manager  of  the  railroad,  Arcis  will  be  satisfied:  you 
can  amuse  the  town  with  that  floating  stick  for  a 
fortnight." 

"No,  I  prefer  the  office  of  irrigator,  it  isn't  so 
common.  I  have  come  to  increase  the  value  of 
land  in  Champagne.  That,  my  dear  Monsieur 
Goulard,  will  be  a  reason  why  you  should  invite  me 
to  dine  at  your  house  with  the  Beauvisages 
to-morrow. — I  am  anxious  to  see  them,  to  study 
them." 

"I  shall  be  only  too  happy  to  entertain  you," 
said  the  sub-prefect;  "but  I  must  ask  your  indul- 
gence for  the  discomforts  of  my  poor  house." 

"If  I  succeed  in  carrying  the  election  at  Arcis  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  those  who  send  me 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  143 

here,  you  shall  be  prefect,  my  dear  friend,"  said  the 
stranger.  "Look,  read  these,"  he  added,  handing 
Antonin  two  other  letters. 

"Very  good.  Monsieur  le  Comte,"  said  Goulard, 
returning  the  letters. 

"Run  over  all  the  votes  that  are  at  the  disposal 
of  the  ministry;  and  above  all  things,  let  us  not 
seem  to  have  any  understanding.  I  am  a  specula- 
tor and  I  scorn  elections!" 

"I  will  send  the  commissioner  of  police  to  compel 
you  to  enter  your  name  on  Poupart's  book." 

"That's  a  good  idea. — Adieu,  monsieur. — What  a 
country  this  is!"  added  the  count,  aloud.  "A  man 
can't  take  a  step  here  without  having  the  whole 
town,  even  to  the  sub-prefect,  on  his  back!" 

"You  can  arrange  matters  with  the  commissioner 
of  police,  monsieur,"  said  Antonin. 

Twenty  minutes  later  at  Madame  Mollot's,  every 
one  was  talking  of  an  altercation  that  had  taken 
place  between  the  sub-prefect  and  the  unknown. 

"Well,  of  what  sort  of  wood  is  the  log  that  has 
fallen  into  our  swamp.?"  said  Olivier  Vinet  to 
Goulard  when  the  latter  emerged  from  Ix  Mulet. 

"He's  a  Comte  Maxime  who  has  come  here  to 
study  the  geological  formation  of  Champagne,  with 
the  idea  of  finding  mineral  springs,"  replied  the 
sub-prefect  with  an  air  of  unconcern. 

"Say  resources,"*  rejoined  Olivier. 


*Another  play  upon  words.  Goulard  said:  "With  ttie  idea  of  fladlae  mineral 
springs — iouTces  mineraUt." 
"Dites  des  ressources,"  is  Vinet's  reply. 


144  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Does  he  expect  to  interest  capital  in  the 
province?"  said  Monsieur  Martener. 

"I  doubt  whether  our  royalists  will  be  taken  in 
by  those  mines,"  said  Olivier  with  a  smile. 

"What  do  you  make  of  Madame  Marion's  manner 
and  gestures?"  said  the  sub-prefect,  changing  the 
subject  by  calling  attention  to  Simon  and  his  aunt 
conferring  together. 

Simon  had  gone  to  meet  his  aunt  and  they  were 
talking  on  the  square. 

"Why,  if  he  were  accepted,  I  should  suppose  that 
a  single  word  would  suffice  to  tell  him  so,"  replied 
the  deputy  attorney. 

"Well?"  said  the  three  functionaries  with  one 
voice  to  Simon,  as  he  joined  them  under  the  lindens. 

"Well,  my  aunt  has  strong  hopes.  Madame 
Beauvisage  and  old  Grevin,  who  was  just  starting 
for  Gondreville,  were  not  surprised  at  our  suit; 
they  talked  about  our  respective  fortunes,  they 
mean  to  leave  Cecile  entirely  free  to  choose  for 
herself.  At  last  Madame  Beauvisage  said  that,  so 
far  as  she  was  concerned,  she  could  see  no  objection 
to  an  alliance  by  which  she  should  consider  herself 
highly  honored,  that  she  would,  however,  let  her 
reply  depend  upon  my  election,  and  perhaps  upon 
my  debut  in  the  Chamber,  and  old  Grevin  talked 
about  consulting  the  Comte  de  Gondreville,  without 
whose  opinion  he  never  decided  any  question  of 
importance." 

"In  that  case,"  said  Goulard  with  decision, 
"you'll  never  marry  Cecile,  old  boy!" 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I45 

**Why  not,  pray?"  cried  Giguet  ironically. 

"My  dear  fellow,  Madame  Beauvisage  and  her 
daughter  and  her  husband  will  pass  four  evenings  a 
week  in  your  aunt's  salon;  your  aunt  is  the  most 
comme  il  faut  woman  in  Arcis;  although  she  is 
twenty  years  older  than  Madame  Beauvisage, 
that  lady  envies  her,  and  do  you  suppose  they 
won't  wrap  up  a  refusal  in  some  courteous 
phrases — ?" 

"To  say  neither  yes  nor  no,"  added  Vinet,  "is  to 
say  no,  taking  into  consideration  the  intimate  rela- 
tions between  your  two  families.  If  Madame 
Beauvisage  is  the  richest  woman  in  Arcis,  Madame 
Marion  is  the  most  highly  esteemed;  for,  with  the 
exception  of  our  president's  wife,  who  sees  no  one, 
she  is  the  only  one  who  knows  how  to  have  a 
salon;  she  is  the  queen  of  Arcis.  Madame  Beau- 
visage seems  to  be  disposed  to  couch  her  refusal  in 
polite  terms,  that's  the  whole  of  it." 

"It  seems  to  me  that  old  Grevin  laughed  at  your 
aunt,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  Frederic  Marest. 

"You  attacked  the  Comte  de  Gondreville  yester- 
day, you  hurt  his  feelings,  you  seriously  offended 
him,  for  Achille  Pigoult  defended  him  manfully, — 
and  they  are  going  to  consult  him  about  your 
marriage  to  Cecile!" 

"It  is  impossible  to  be  craftier  than  old  P^re 
Grevin,"  said  Vinet. 

"Madame  Beauvisage  is  ambitious,"  said  Goulard, 
"and  knows  very  well  that  her  daughter  will  have 
two  millions;  she  means  to  be  mother-in-law  of  a 
10 


146  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

minister  or  an  ambassador,  in  order  to  sit  on  a 
throne  in  Paris." 

"Well,  why  not?"  said  Simon  Giguet. 

"I  wish  you  may  be  either!"  rejoined  the  sub- 
prefect,  glancing  at  the  deputy  attorney,  with 
whom  he  began  to  laugh  when  they  were  a  few 
steps  away. — "He  won't  even  be  chosen  deputy," 
he  said  to  Olivier;  **the  ministry  has  plans  of  its 
own.  You  will  find  at  home  a  letter  from  your 
father,  who  urges  you  to  make  sure  of  those  persons 
in  your  office  whose  votes  belong  to  the  ministry; 
your  promotion  is  at  stake,  and  he  recommends  the 
utmost  secrecy." 

"And  for  whom  are  our  bailiffs,  our  solicitors,  our 
justices  of  the  peace,  our  notaries  to  vote?"  in- 
quired Vinet. 

"For  the  candidate  whom  I  shall  name  to  you." 

"But  how  do  you  know  that  my  father  has 
written  to  me,  and  what  he  has  written  to  me?" 

"From  the  stranger." 

"The  man  of  mines?" 

"My  dear  Vinet,  we  must  not  know  him,  we 
must  treat  him  as  a  stranger. — He  saw  your  father 
at  Provins  as  he  passed  through.  A  moment  ago 
this  personage  greeted  me  with  a  line  from  the 
prefect  telling  me  to  follow  whatever  instructions 
Comte  Ma::ime  gives  me  concerning  the  election  in 
Arcis.  I  could  not  fail  to  have  a  battle  to  fight,  I 
knew  it  perfectly  well!  Let  us  go  and  dine  together 
and  set  up  our  batteries:  it's  a  matter  of  your 
becoming  king's  attorney  at  Mantes  and  of  my 


THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS  I47 

obtaining  a  prefecture,  and  we  must  not  appear  to 
meddle  in  the  elections,  for  we're  between  the 
hammer  and  the  anvil.  Simon  is  the  candidate  of 
a  party  that  seeks  to  overturn  the  present  ministry 
and  may  succeed;  but  for  people  who  know  as  much 
as  we  do,  there's  only  one  course  to  take." 

"What  is  that?" 

"To  serve  those  who  make  and  unmake  minis- 
tries.— And  the  letter  that  was  shown  me  is  from 
one  of  those  persons  who  are  the  godfathers  of 
immutable  thought." 


Before  going  farther  it  is  necessary  to  explain 
who  this  miner  was,  and  what  he  expected  to  extract 
from  the  soil  of  Champagne. 

About  two  months  before  the  triumph  of  Simon 
Giguet  as  a  candidate,  one  evening  at  eleven  o'clock, 
just  as  tea  was  being  served  in  the  salon  of  the 
Marquise  d'Espard  in  Faubourg  Saint-Honore,  the 
Chevalier  d'Espard,  her  brother-in-law,  remarked, 
as  he  placed  his  cup  on  the  table  and  glanced  at  the 
circle  around  the  fire: 

"Maxime  was  very  melancholy  to-night — don't 
you  think  so?" 

**Why,  his  melancholy  is  easily  explained,"  said 
Rastignac,  "he  is  forty-eight  years  old;  at  that  age 
a  man  has  ceased  to  make  friends;  and  when  we 
buried  De  Marsay,  Maxime  lost  the  only  man  capable 
of  understanding  him,  of  serving  him  and  of  making 
use  of  him." 

"He  has  some  pressing  debts,  no  doubt;  couldn't 
you  put  him  in  a  way  to  pay  them?"  the  marchion- 
ess asked  Rastignac, 

At  that  moment  Rastignac  was  in  the  ministry  for 
the  second  time;  he  had  just  been  made  a  count 
almost  in  spite  of  himself;  his  father-in-law.  Baron 
de  Nucingen,  had  been  made  a  peer  of  France;  his 
brother  was  a  bishop;  the  Comte  de  la  Roche-Hugon, 
his  brother-in-law,  was  an  ambassador;  and  he 
(149) 


I50  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

himself  was  looked  upon  as  an  indispensable  factor 
in  future  ministerial  combinations. 

"You  constantly  forget,  my  dear  marchioness," 
he  replied,  "that  our  government  exchanges  its 
silver  for  nothing  but  gold;  it  knows  nothing  about 
men." 

"Is  Maxime  a  man  to  blow  out  his  brains?"  in- 
quired the  banker  Du  Tillet. 

"Ah!  you  would  like  to  have  me  do  it,  then  we 
should  be  quits!"  retorted  Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles, 
whom  everybody  supposed  to  have  gone  away. 

The  count  rose  like  a  ghost  from  the  depths  of  an 
easy -chair  behind  the  Chevalier  d'Espard's.  Every- 
body began  to  laugh. 

"Will  you  have  a  cup  of  tea?"  said  the  young 
Comtesse  de  Rastignac,  whom  the  marchioness  had 
requested  to  do  the  honors  in  her  stead. 

"With  pleasure,"  replied  the  count,  taking  a  seat 
in  front  of  the  fireplace. 

This  man,  the  prince  of  Parisian  ne'er-do-wells, 
had  up  to  that  day  maintained  himself  in  the 
superior  position  occupied  by  the  dandies,  then 
csiWed yellow  gloves  and  afterwards  lions.  It  is  useless 
to  tell  the  story  of  his  youth,  which  was  full  of  love 
intrigues  and  made  notable  by  ghastly  dramas  in 
which  he  had  always  succeeded  in  keeping  within 
the  bounds  of  social  propriety.  To  that  man  women 
were  never  aught  but  instruments;  he  believed  in 
their  sufferings  no  more  than  in  their  enjoyments; 
he  treated  them,  as  the  late  De  Marsay  did,  like 
naughty  children.     After  running  through  his  own 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  151 

fortune  he  had  consumed  that  of  a  celebrated 
courtesan  called  La  Belle  Hollandaise,  mother  of  the 
famous  Esther  Gobseck.  Then  he  had  been  the 
cause  of  the  misfortunes  of  Madame  de  Restaud, 
sister  of  Madame  Delphine  de  Nucingen,  who  was 
the  young  Comtesse  de  Rastignac's  mother. 
Parisian  society  presents  the  most  incredible 
anomalies.  The  Baronne  de  Nucingen  was  sitting 
in  Madame  d'Espard's  salon  at  that  moment,  in  the 
presence  of  the  author  of  all  her  sister's  woes,  an 
assassin  who  had  murdered  a  woman's  happiness. 
That  undoubtedly  was  why  he  was  there.  Madame 
de  Nucingen  had  dined  at  the  marchioness's  with 
her  daughter,  married  a  year  previous  to  the  Comte 
de  Rastignac,  who  had  begun  his  political  career  in 
the  office  of  Under-Secretary  of  State  in  the  notorious 
ministry  of  the  late  De  Marsay,  the  only  great 
statesman  produced  by  the  Revolution  of  July. 

Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  alone  knew  how  many 
catastrophes  he  had  caused;  but  he  had  always 
sheltered  himself  from  blame,  by  obeying  the  pro- 
visions of  the  code-human.  Although  he  had 
dissipated  during  his  life  more  money  than  the  four 
galleys  of  France  had  stolen  in  the  same  time,  the 
law  treated  h'm  with  respect.  He  had  never  been 
found  wanting  in  the  point  of  honor,  he  paid  his 
gambling  debts  with  scrupulous  exactness.  Being 
a  wonderfully  skilful  card-player,  he  played  with 
the  greatest  noblemen  and  ambassadors.  He  dined 
with  all  the  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps.  He 
fought  duels;  he  had  killed  two  or  three  men  in  his 


152  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

day,  had  almost  murdered  them  in  fact,  for  his 
address  and  self-possession  were  incomparable. 
No  young  man  of  the  time  equaled  him  in  dress  or 
distinguished  bearing,  in  refinement  of  speech,  in  ease 
of  manner,  which  used  to  be  called  having  a  grand 
air.  In  the  capacity  of  page  to  the  Emperor,  trained 
from  the  age  of  twelve  in  the  art  of  riding,  he  was 
reckoned  one  of  the  cleverest  of  equerries.  As  he 
had  never  had  less  than  five  horses  in  his  stable,  he 
was  prominent  on  the  turf  and  always  set  the 
fashion.  Moreover,  no  one  was  a  greater  success 
than  he  at  young  men's  supper-parties;  he  would 
drink  more  than  the  most  seasoned  of  them,  and 
would  come  out  as  fresh  as  a  rose  and  ready  to  begin 
again,  as  if  debauchery  were  his  element.  Maxime 
was  one  of  those  despised  men  who  have  the  art  of 
repressing  the  contempt  they  inspire  by  the  inso- 
lence of  their  bearing  and  the  fear  they  arouse,  but 
he  never  deceived  himself  as  to  his  position.  That 
was  the  secret  of  his  strength.  Men  of  strong  mind 
are  always  their  own  critics.  Under  the  Restora- 
tion he  had  made  the  most  of  his  former  experience 
as  page  to  the  Emperor;  he  attributed  to  his  alleged 
Bonapartist  opinions  the  rebuffs  he  had  encountered 
from  the  different  ministries  when  he  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  serve  the  Bourbons;  for,  notwithstanding 
his  connections,  his  high  birth  and  his  dangerous 
talents,  he  could  obtain  nothing;  thereupon  he 
entered  into  the  underground  conspiracy  which 
caused  the  downfall  of  the  Bourbons  of  the  elder 
branch.     When  the  younger  branch,  preceded  by 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 53 

the  Parisian  populace,  had  trampled  upon  the  elder 
branch,  and  was  fairly  seated  on  the  throne,  Maxime 
once  more  exploited  his  attachment  to  Napoleon, 
for  whom  he  cared  as  little  as  for  his  first  petty  love- 
affair.  He  rendered  important  services,  which  the 
government  was  sadly  embarrassed  to  recompense, 
for  he  demanded  to  be  paid  too  frequently  by  people 
who  knew  how  to  count.  At  the  first  refusal 
Maxime  assumed  a  hostile  attitude,  threatening  to 
disclose  certain  unsavory  details,  for  dynasties, 
when  beginning  their  reign,  have  soiled  swaddling- 
clothes,  like  young  children. 

De  Marsay,  during  his  ministry,  atoned  for  the 
errors  of  those  who  had  failed  to  appreciate  this 
worthy's  usefulness;  he  entrusted  him  with  secret 
missions  of  the  sort  that  require  consciences  beaten 
thin  by  the  hammer  of  necessity,  an  address  that 
recoils  from  no  difficulty,  impudence,  and  above  all 
that  sang-froid,  that  self-assurance,  that  keenness  of 
vision  which  go  to  make  up  the  hravi  of  thought 
and  of  politics.  Such  instruments  are  both  rare 
and  necessary.  De  Marsay  designedly  anchored 
Maxime  de  Trailles  in  the  most  exalted  social  circle; 
he  described  him  as  a  man  ripened  by  passions, 
taught  by  experience,  who  knew  men  and  things 
thoroughly,  and  who  had  derived  from  his  travels 
and  from  a  remarkable  faculty  of  observation  a  close 
acquaintance  with  European  affairs,  with  foreign 
cabinets  and  with  the  alliances  of  all  the  continental 
families.  De  Marsay  convinced  Maxime  of  the 
necessity  of  proving  an  honor  to  his  chief;    he 


154  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

depicted  discretion  to  him  less  as  a  virtue  than  as  a 
profitable  speculation;  he  demonstrated  to  him  that 
the  government  would  never  turn  its  back  upon  a 
stout  and  reliable,  fashionable  and  refined  instru- 
ment. 

"In  politics,  a  man  never  gets  but  one  chance!" 
he  said  to  him,  blaming  him  for  having  indulged  in 
threats. 

Maxima  was  the  man  to  fathom  the  depth  of  that 
remark. 

When  De  Marsay  died,  Maxime  de  Trailles 
relapsed  into  his  former  mode  of  life.  Every  year 
he  visited  the  watering-places  to  gamble  and 
returned  to  Paris  for  the  winter;  but,  although  he 
received  some  considerable  sums  from  the  depths  of 
certain  exceedingly  parsimonious  strong  boxes,  that 
sort  of  half-pay,  due  to  the  intrepidity  of  the  man 
who  could  be  employed  at  any  moment  and  who  was 
in  the  secret  of  many  mysteries  of  the  counter- 
diplomacy,  was  insufficient  for  the  extravagance  of 
an  existence  so  magnificent  as  that  of  the  king  of 
the  dandies,  the  tyrant  of  four  or  five  Parisian  clubs. 
Thus  Comte  Maxime  was  frequently  disturbed  in 
mind  concerning  the  financial  question.  Owning 
no  real  estate,  he  had  not  been  able  to  solidify  his 
position  by  obtaining  an  election  as  deputy;  and, 
having  no  visible  functions,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  hold  the  knife  at  the  throat  of  any  ministry 
in  order  to  compel  his  elevation  to  the  dignity  of  the 
peerage.  Now  he  found  that  time  was  telling  upon 
him,  for  his  reckless  life  had  left  its  mark  upon  his 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 55 

person  no  less  than  his  varying  fortunes.  Notwith- 
standing his  fair  exterior,  he  knew  himself  and  could 
not  deceive  himself  as  to  his  condition;  he  thought 
seriously  of  calling  a  halt  and  marrying.  Being  a 
man  of  intelligence  he  made  no  mistake  as  to  the 
consideration  in  which  he  was  apparently  held:  he 
well  knew  that  it  was  deceptive.  Therefore  he  was 
not  likely  to  find  a  wife  either  in  the  first  society  of 
Paris  or  in  the  bourgeoisie;  he  must  needs  have  a 
prodigious  store  of  real  malevolence  and  apparent 
good-fellowship,  and  have  rendered  important  ser- 
vices to  induce  the  ruling  powers  to  endure  him  any 
longer,  for  everyone  desired  his  fall,  and  a  vein  of 
ill-luck  might  be  his  ruin.  If  he  were  once  sent  to 
the  Clichy  prison  or  exiled  by  virtue  of  certain 
inconvenient  notes  of  hand,  he  would  fall  into  the 
abyss  in  which  we  can  see  so  many  political  car- 
casses who  have  no  power  of  mutual  consolation. 
At  that  very  moment  he  was  in  dread  of  the  fall  of 
some  portions  of  that  threatening  structure  which 
debts  erect  over  more  than  one  Parisian  head.  He 
had  allowed  his  anxiety  to  appear  upon  his  brow,  he 
had  declined  to  play  at  Madame  d'Espard's,  he  had 
given  evidence  of  absent-mindedness  in  talking  with 
the  ladies,  and  he  had  finally  thrown  himself  back, 
mute  and  absorbed  in  thought,  in  the  easy-chair 
from  which  he  had  just  risen  like  Banquo's  ghost. 

Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  found  that  he  was  the 
goal  of  every  glance,  direct  or  oblique,  planted  as  he 
was  in  the  centre  of  the  hearth,  and  illuminated  by 
the  cross-fires  of  two  candelabra.     The  few  words 


156  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

that  had  been  said  concerning  him  compelled  him  in 
some  sort  to  assume  a  haughty  pose,  and  he  bore 
himself  like  a  man  of  intelligence,  without  arro- 
gance, but  with  the  purpose  of  showing  that  he  was 
above  suspicion.  A  painter  could  never  have  found 
a  better  moment  to  obtain  a  portrait  of  that  most 
extraordinary  man.  Must  one  not  necessarily  be 
endowed  with  faculties  of  a  rare  order  to  play  such 
a  r61e,  to  have  seduced  women  for  thirty  years,  to 
determine  to  employ  one's  gifts  only  in  an  invisible 
sphere,  by  inciting  a  people  to  rebellion,  by  stealth- 
ily fathoming  the  secrets  of  astute  politicians,  by 
winning  one's  triumphs  only  in  boudoirs  or  in  closets  ? 
Is  there  not  something  indefinably  grand  in  raising 
one's  self  to  the  highest  level  of  politics  and  falling 
back  into  the  cold  void  of  a  frivolous  life?  What  a 
man  of  iron  he  must  be  who  withstands  the  varying 
fortunes  of  play,  the  swift  changes  of  politics,  the 
demands  of  fashion  and  society,  the  lavish  expendi- 
ture of  necessary  love-affairs,  who  makes  his 
memory  a  library  of  stratagems  and  lies,  who 
envelops  so  many  diverse  thoughts,  so  many  sly 
manoeuvres  in  an  impenetrable  refinement  of  man- 
ner! If  the  wind  of  favor  had  filled  those  sails 
which  were  always  set,  if  the  turn  of  events  had 
been  favorable  to  Maxime,  he  might  have  been 
Mazarin,  the  Marechal  de  Richelieu,  Potemkin,  or 
perhaps,  more  exactly,  Lauzun,  minus  Pignerol. 

Although  he  was  quite  tall  and  constitutionally 
spare,  the  count  had  acquired  something  of  a 
paunch,  but  he  kept  it  within  majestic  limits,  to 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 57 

employ  an  expression  of  Brillat-Savarin.  His  clothes 
were  always  so  well  made  too,  that  he  preserved  in 
his  whole  person  a  youthful  air,  a  suggestion  of 
activity  and  agility,  due  doubtless  to  his  constant 
exercise,  to  his  habits  of  fencing,  riding  and  hunting. 
Maxime  possessed  all  the  physical  graces  and 
advantages  of  the  aristocracy,  heightened  by  his 
superior  dress  and  carriage.  His  long  face,  of  a 
Bourbon  cast,  was  framed  by  side-whiskers  and  by 
a  fringe  of  beard,  carefully  curled  and  trimmed 
according  to  the  prevailing  fashion,  and  as  black  as 
jet  The  color,  like  that  of  his  abundant  hair,  was 
obtained  by  the  use  of  a  very  expensive  Indian 
cosmetic,  used  in  Persia,  the  secret  of  which 
Maxime  kept  to  himself.  Thus  he  deceived  even 
the  most  experienced  eyes  concerning  the  grayish 
tinge  that  had  long  before  made  itself  apparent  in  his 
hair.  The  peculiar  property  of  that  dye-stuff, 
which  the  Persians  use  on  their  beards,  is  that  it 
does  not  make  the  features  appear  harsh;  the  shade 
can  be  varied  by  varying  the  proportion  of  indigo, 
and  made  to  harmonize  with  the  color  of  the  skin. 
It  was  evidently  that  operation  that  Madame  Mollot 
had  witnessed;  but  in  certain  circles  the  jest  of 
asking  what  Madame  Mollot  saw  is  still  in  favor. 
Maxime  had  a  very  fine  forehead,  blue  eyes,  a 
Greek  nose,  a  pleasant  mouth  and  a  well-shaped 
chin;  but  his  eyes  were  surrounded  by  numerous 
lines  as  fine  as  if  they  had  been  cut  with  a  razor 
and  invisible  at  a  little  distance.  His  temples  bore 
similar  marks.     The   face  also  was  considerably 


158  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

seamed.  The  eyes,  like  those  of  gamblers  who 
have  passed  innumerable  sleepless  nights,  were 
covered  as  with  a  layer  of  varnish;  but  his  glance, 
although  weakened  in  intensity,  was  the  more 
terrible  therefor;  it  frightened  you,  you  felt  that 
there  was  a  smouldering  fire  behind,  a  lava-flood  of 
passion  only  partly  extinguished.  The  mouth, 
formerly  so  red  and  moist,  also  had  a  cold  look;  it 
was  no  longer  straight  but  was  deflected  to  the 
right.  That  peculiarity  seemed  to  indicate  false- 
hood. Vice  had  twisted  those  lips;  but  the  teeth 
were  still  white  and  handsome.  These  blemishes 
vanished  in  the  general  aspect  of  the  face  and  the 
person.  The  outlines  were  still  so  fascinating  that 
no  younger  man  could  rival  Maxime  on  horseback  in 
the  Bois,  where  he  seemed  younger  and  more  grace- 
ful than  the  youngest  and  most  graceful  of  them  all. 

This  privilege  of  perennial  youth  was  possessed 
by  several  men  of  that  time.  The  count  was  the 
more  dangerous  in  that  he  seemed  pliable,  indolent, 
and  gave  no  sign  of  the  terrible  determination  which 
governed  his  course  in  everything.  That  ghastly 
indifference,  which  made  it  possible  for  him  to  help 
on  a  popular  uprising  as  adroitly  as  he  could  have 
carried  on  a  court  intrigue,  with  the  object  of 
solidifying  the  authority  of  a  prince,  invested  him 
with  a  sort  of  charm.  People  never  distrust  a  calm, 
equable  manner,  especially  in  France,  where  we 
are  accustomed  to  much  excitement  concerning  the 
smallest  matters. 

The  count  was  dressed,  in  accordance  with  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 59 

fashion  of  1839,  in  a  black  coat,  dark  blue  cashmere 
waistcoat,  embroidered  with  small  flowers  in  light 
blue,  black  trousers,  gray  silk  stockings  and  patent 
leather  shoes.  His  watch,  which  he  carried  in  a 
pocket  of  his  waistcoat,  was  secured  by  a  superb 
chain  passed  through  one  of  the  buttonholes. 

"Rastignac,"  he  said,  accepting  the  cup  of  tea 
handed  him  by  pretty  Madame  de  Rastignac,  "will 
you  come  to  the  Austrian  embassy  with  me?" 

"I  am  too  recently  married,  my  friend,  not  to  go 
home  with  my  wife." 

"That  means  that  later — ?"  said  the  young 
countess,  turning  to  look  at  her  husband. 

"Later  is  the  end  of  the  world,"  rejoined  Maxime. 
"But  don't  you  assure  me  of  success  in  my  suit  by 
making  madame  the  judge?" 

The  count,  with  a  graceful  wave  of  his  hand, 
led  the  pretty  countess  aside;  she  listened  to  a 
few  words,  glanced  at  her  mother  and  said  to 
Rastignac: 

"If  you  wish  to  go  with  Monsieur  de  Trailles  to 
the  embassy,  mother  will  take  me  home." 

A  few  moments  later  the  Baronne  de  Nucingen 
and  the  Comtesse  de  Rastignac  left  the  house 
together.  Maxime  and  Rastignac  soon  followed 
them,  and  when  they  were  seated  in  the  count's 
carriage,  the  newly-married  man  began: 

"What  do  you  want  of  me,  Maxime?  What  is 
there  so  urgent,  that  you  take  me  by  the  throat 
like  this?     What  did  you  say  to  my  wife?" 

"That  I  had  something  to  say  to  you,"  replied 


l60  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Monsieur  de  Trailles.  "You  are  a  lucky  fellow! 
You  have  ended  by  marrying  the  sole  heiress  of 
Nucingen's  millions  and  you  well  earned  her — 
twenty  years  of  penal  servitude  I" 

"Maxime!" 

**But  look  at  me,  here  am  I  looked  at  askance  by 
everybody,"  he  continued,  paying  no  heed  to  the 
interruption.  "A  vile  cur,  a  Du  Tillet,  wonders  if 
I  have  the  courage  to  kill  myself!  It  is  time  for  me 
to  settle  down.  Does  the  government  want  to  get 
rid  of  me  or  not?  You  can  find  out — you  shall  find 
out,*'  he  said,  imposing  silence  on  Rastignac  by  a 
gesture.  "This  is  my  plan,  listen.  You  ought  to 
help  me,  for  I  have  helped  you  and  can  help  you 
again.  The  life  I  am  leading  wearies  me  and  I  want 
a  chance  to  retire.  Come,  help  me  to  arrange  a 
marriage  that  will  give  me  half  a  million;  when  I 
am  once  married,  send  me  as  minister  to  some  paltry 
American  republic.  I  will  stay  there  as  long  as  I 
must  to  justify  my  appointment  to  a  place  of  the 
same  sort  in  Germany.  If  I  am  worth  anything,  you 
will  give  me  something  better;  if  I  am  worth  noth- 
ing, you  will  thank  me  for  getting  out  of  the  way. 
Perhaps  I  shall  have  a  son;  I  shall  be  very  strict  with 
him;  his  mother  will  be  rich,  I'll  make  a  diplomatist 
of  him  and  perhaps  he'll  be  an  ambassador." 

"This  is  my  answer,"  said  Rastignac.  "There 
is  a  conflict,  a  more  bitter  conflict  than  most  people 
imagine,  between  a  certain  power  in  swaddling- 
clothes  and  an  infant  power.  The  power  in 
swaddling-clothes   is  the    Chamber  of    Deputies, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  l6l 

which,  not  being  held  in  check  by  a  hereditary 
Chamber — " 

"Aha!"  said  Maxime,  "you're  a  peer  of  France." 
"Should  I  not  be  by  this  time  under  any  regime?" 
said  the  new  peer. — "But  don't  interrupt  me, 
there's  a  chance  for  you  in  ail  this  muddle.  The 
Chamber  of  Deputies  will  inevitably  become  the 
whole  government,  as  we  were  warned  by  De 
Marsay,  the  only  man  by  whom  France  could  have 
been  saved,  for  nations  do  not  die,  they  are  slaves 
or  freemen,  that  is  all.  The  infant  power  is  the 
dynasty  crowned  in  August  1830.  The  present 
ministry  is  beaten,  it  has  dissolved  the  Chamber 
and  intends  to  manage  the  elections  so  that  the 
succeeding  ministry  shall  not  manage  them;  but  it 
does  not  expect  a  victory.  If  it  should  be  victorious 
in  the  elections,  the  dynasty  would  be  in  danger; 
whereas,  if  the  ministry  is  whipped,  the  dynastic 
party  can  carry  on  the  struggle  advantageously  for 
a  long  while  to  come.  The  errors  of  the  Chamber 
will  turn  to  the  advantage  of  a  will,  which  unfor- 
tunately is  everything  in  politics.  When  one  is  the 
whole  government  as  Napoleon  was,  there  comes  a 
time  when  one  must  provide  one's  self  with  a  substi- 
tute, and  as  the  men  of  superior  mould  have  been 
alienated,  the  great  whole  is  unable  to  find  a  proper 
substitute.  The  substitute  is  what  is  called  a 
cabinet,  and  there  is  no  cabinet  in  France,  there  is 
simply  an  ephemeral  will.  In  France  the  party  in 
power  alone  makes  mistakes,  the  opposition  cannot 
make  any;  it  may  lose  all  the  batties  it  fights,  it  is 


l62  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

enough  if,  like  the  Allies  in  1814,  it  wins  a  single 
time.  And  with  three  glorious  days  it  ruins  every- 
thing. So  that  the  way  to  inherit  the  governing 
power  is  to  be  in  opposition  and  to  wait.  I  belong, 
so  far  as  my  private  opinions  are  concerned,  to  the 
aristocracy,  and  by  my  public  opinions  to  the 
dynasty  of  July.  The  House  of  Orleans  has 
assisted  me  to  restore  the  fortunes  of  my  house, 
and  I  am  attached  to  it  forever." 

"Monsieur  de  Talleyrand's  forever,  be  it  under- 
stood!" said  Maxime. 

*'At  this  moment  therefore  I  can  do  nothing  for 
you,"  continued  Rastignac;  "we  shall  not  be  in 
power  six  months  hence.  Yes,  those  six  months 
are  going  to  be  a  sort  of  death  agony, — I  knew  it; 
we  knew  our  fate  when  we  took  office,  we  are 
simply  a  stop-gap  ministry.  But  if  you  distinguish 
yourself  in  the  electoral  battle  about  to  be  fought, 
if  you  bring  one  vote,  one  deputy  faithful  to  the 
cause  of  the  dynasty,  your  wish  shall  be  gratified. 
1  can  talk  about  your  good  intentions,  I  can  put  my 
nose  into  the  secret  documents,  the  confidential 
reports,  and  find  some  hard  job  for  you.  If  you 
succeed,  I  can  dwell  on  your  talents,  your  devotion, 
and  demand  the  reward.  You  must  find  your  wife, 
my  dear  fellow,  in  some  family  of  ambitious  trades- 
people, and  in  the  provinces.  You  are  too  well- 
known  in  Paris.  The  main  point  therefore  is  to 
find  a  millionaire,  a  parvenu  blessed  with  a  daughter 
and  possessed  of  a  desire  to  make  a  display  at  the 
Chateau  des  Tuileries." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  163 

"Induce  your  father-in-law  to  lend  me  twenty-five 
thousand  francs  to  keep  me  till  then;  it  will  be  to  his 
interest  then  to  see  that  I  am  not  paid  in  court  holy 
water  after  my  success,  and  he  will  help  on  the 
marriage." 

"You're  a  shrewd  fellow,  Maxime,  you  don't 
trust  me;  but  1  like  bright  men  and  I'll  arrange  the 
affair  for  you." 

They  had  reached  the  embassy.  The  Comte  de 
Rastignac  spied  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  in  the 
salon  and  went  and  talked  with  him  in  a  corner. 
Comte  Maxime  de  Trailles  was  apparently  engaged 
in  conversation  with  the  old  Comtesse  de  Listom^re; 
but  he  was,  in  reality,  following  the  interview  of  the 
two  peers  of  France;  he  watched  their  gestures,  he 
interpreted  their  expressions,  and  finally  he  detected 
a  favorable  glance  bestowed  upon  him  by  the 
minister.  Maxime  and  Rastignac  went  away  to- 
gether at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and,  before 
entering  their  respective  carriages,  Rastignac  said, 
on  the  staircase: 

"Come  to  see  me  when  the  elections  are  near 
at  hand.  Between  now  and  then  I  shall  find  out  in 
what  quarter  the  chances  of  the  opposition  are  least 
promising,  and  what  means  of  action  two  intellects 
like  ours  can  find  in  that  quarter." 

"The  twenty -five  thousand  francs  are  urgently 
needed!"  De  Trailles  replied. 

"Very  well,  keep  out  of  sight." 

Seven  weeks  later,  the  Comte  de  Trailles  visited 
Rue   de   Varenne    mysteriously,    in  a  hired   cab, 


l64  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

before  daybreak.  At  the  door  of  the  house  occupied 
by  the  Minister  of  Public  Works,  he  dismissed  the 
cab,  looked  to  see  if  he  were  followed,  then  entered 
the  house  and  waited  in  a  small  salon  until  Rasti- 
gnac  should  appear.  A  few  moments  later  the 
servant  who  had  taken  Maxime's  card  ushered  him 
into  the  bedroom  where  the  statesman  was  complet- 
ing his  morning  toilet. 

"My  dear  fellow,"  said  the  minister,  "I  can  tell 
you  a  secret  which  will  be  disclosed  two  days  hence 
in  the  newspapers,  and  which  you  can  turn  to 
advantage.  Poor  Charles  Keller,  who  danced  the 
mazurka  so  well,  has  been  killed  in  Africa,  and  he 
was  our  candidate  in  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis. 
His  death  leaves  a  gap.  Here  are  copies  of  two 
reports,  one  from  the  sub-prefect,  the  other  from 
the  commissioner  of  police,  warning  the  ministry 
that  our  poor  friend's  candidacy  would  encounter 
obstacles.  There  is  information  in  the  commis- 
sioner's report  concerning  the  state  of  the  town, 
which  will  be  sufficient  for  a  man  of  your  adroitness, 
for  the  ambition  of  poor  Charles  Keller's  rival  is  due 
to  his  desire  to  marry  an  heiress.  That  statement 
is  enough  for  one  so  quick  to  understand  as  you. 
The  Cinq-Cygnes,  the  Princesse  de  Cadignan  and 
Georges  de  Maufrigneuse  are  within  two  steps  of 
Arcis;  you  will  find  a  way  to  get  the  legitimist  votes 
if  necessary. — And  so — " 

"Don't  tire  your  tongue,"  said  Maxime.  "Is  the 
commissioner  of  police  still  there?" 

"Yes." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  165 

"Just  give  me  a  line  for  him." 

"My  dear  fellow,"  said  Rastignac,  handing 
Maxime  a  whole  bundle  of  papers,  "you  will  find 
there  two  letters  to  Gondreville  for  you.  You  have 
been  a  page  and  he  a  senator,  so  you  will  under- 
stand each  other.  Madame  Francois  Keller  is  very 
pious,  here  is  a  letter  for  her  from  the  Marechale  de 
Carigliano.  The  marechale  has  come  over  to  the 
dynasty,  she  recommends  you  warmly  and  will  join 
you  there,  too.  I  will  add  but  one  word:  be  shy  of 
the  sub-prefect,  whom  I  believe  to  be  capable  of 
manoeuvring  to  make  use  of  this  Simon  Giguet  to 
say  a  good  word  for  him  to  the  ex-President  of  the 
Council.  If  you  need  letters,  authority,  recom- 
mendations, write  to  me." 

"And  the  twenty-five  thousand  francs?"  queried 
Maxime. 

"Sign  this  note  to  Du  Tillet's  order,  here's  the 
money." 

"I  shall  succeed,"  said  the  count,  "and  you  can 
promise  the  people  at  the  chateau  that  the  Deputy 
from  Arcis  will  belong  to  them,  body  and  soul.  If  I 
fail,  let  them  throw  me  over!" 

An  hour  later  Maxime  de  Trailles  was  in  his  tilbury 
on  the  road  to  Troyes. 

Once  in  possession  of  the  information  furnished 
by  the  hostess  of  Le  Mulct  and  by  Antonin  Goulard, 
the  sub-prefect.  Monsieur  de  Trailles  soon  laid  out 
his  electoral  plan  of  campaign,  and  that  plan  sug- 
gests itself  too  readily  for  the  reader  not  to  have 
foreseen  it  already.      The  adroit  agent  of  private 


l66  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

politics  abruptly  set  up  the  candidacy  of  Phileas  in 
opposition  to  the  candidacy  of  Simon  Giguet;  and, 
despite  the  absolute  nullity  and  incongruousness  of 
his  man,  it  must  be  admitted  that  that  combination 
had  an  excellent  chance  of  success.  Being  a  well- 
known  figure  to  the  great  majority  of  indifferent 
electors,  because  of  the  municipal  halo,  Beauvisage 
had  a  tremendous  advantage  at  the  start:  his  name 
was  a  household  word  among  them.  Logic  presides 
over  the  conduct  of  earthly  things  much  more  than 
it  seems  to  do;  it  is  like  the  wife  to  whom  one  con- 
stantly returns  after  many  infidelities. 

Common  sense  would  seem  to  require  that,  being 
called  upon  to  select  a  representative  of  the  public 
interests,  the  electors  should  always  be  perfectly 
well  informed  concerning  his  fitness,  his  uprightness, 
his  character.  Too  often,  in  practice,  that  theory 
is  terribly  distorted,  beyond  question;  but  whenever 
the  electoral  flock,  being  left  to  its  instinctive  under- 
standing of  its  duties,  can  persuade  itself  that  it  is 
voting  by  the  use  of  its  own  intelligence  and  its  own 
information,  we  may  be  sure  of  seeing  it  exhibit 
abundant  energy  and  self-esteem  in  making  up  its 
mind:  is  it  not  an  excellent  beginning,  electorally 
speaking,  when  the  important  point  is  to  know  a 
man,  to  know  at  least  what  his  name  is? 

Passing  from  the  indifferent  electors  to  those  most 
deeply  interested,  Phileas  was  assured  in  the  first 
place  of  the  support  of  the  Gondreville  party.  When 
it  was  a  matter  of  chastising  Simon  Giguet's  pre- 
sumption, what  candidate  would   not  have   been 


THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  167 

supported  by  the  Vice-roi  of  Arcis?  The  nomination 
of  a  man  who  had  placed  himself  in  an  attitude  of 
flagrant  hostility  and  ingratitude  toward  him,  was 
one  of  those  assaults  upon  his  provincial  eminence, 
which  must  be  turned  aside  at  any  cost.  But  at  the 
first  news  that  reached  Grevin,  his  father-in-law,  of 
his  parliamentary  ambition,  Beauvisage  was  greeted 
with  an  amazement  that  was  neither  flattering  nor 
encouraging.  The  ex-notary  had  gauged  his  son-in- 
law  once  for  all,  and  the  thought  of  Phileas  as  a 
statesman  produced  upon  his  eminently  fair  and 
acute  mind  something  of  the  disagreeable  effect  pro- 
duced upon  the  ear  by  a  sudden  ill-arranged  discord. 
Moreover,  if  it  is  truly  said  that  no  prophet  is 
honored  in  his  own  country,  it  seems  to  be  even 
more  true  of  his  family,  where  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  most  undeniable  success  continues  to  be  a 
matter  of  dispute  long  after  it  has  ceased  to  be 
mentioned  in  public.  But,  when  the  first  shock  had 
passed,  Grevin  eventually  became  acclimated  to  the 
idea  of  an  expedient  which,  after  all,  adapted  itself 
very  well  to  his  plans  for  Severine's  future.  And 
then,  what  sacrifice  would  he  not  have  made  for  the 
salvation  of  the  Gondreville  influence,  so  seriously 
threatened? 

To  the  legitimist  and  republican  parties,  neither 
of  which  could  cut  any  figure  in  the  election  except 
to  turn  the  scale  in  case  the  result  was  very  close, 
Monsieur  de  Trailles'  candidate  commended  himself 
for  a  strange  reason — to-wit  his  well-understood  un- 
fitness.    Realizing  that  they  were  not  strong  enough 


l68  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

to  choose  a  deputy  of  their  own  selection,  the  two 
factions  of  the  anti-dynastic  opposition  would  em- 
brace with  ardor  an  opportunity  to  make  a  nick  in 
what  they  contemptuously  called  the  existing  order  of 
things,  and  they  could  be  depended  upon,  in  their 
joyful  despair,  to  strive  with  all  their  heart  for  the 
success  of  a  candidate  so  resplendent  with  absurdity 
that  a  broad  beam  would  shine  from  him  upon  the 
government  that  had  given  him  its  support.  And 
lastly,  in  the  ranks  of  the  Left  Centre,  which  had 
provisionally  adopted  Simon  Giguet  as  its  candidate, 
Beauvisage  was  in  a  fair  way  to  cause  a  serious 
schism,  for  he  too  held  himself  out  as  belonging  to 
the  dynastic  opposition,  and,  until  further  orders, 
while  assuring  him  of  the  aid  of  the  ministerial 
influence.  Monsieur  de  Trailles  proposed  to  have 
him  retain  that  political  hue,  which  was  unques- 
tionably the  most  popular  in  the  neighborhood  in 
which  they  were  carrying  on  operations.  But 
whatever  luggage  in  the  way  of  opinions  the  incor- 
ruptible representative  might  carry  to  Paris,  his 
horoscope  was  cast:  they  could  be  assured  that, 
upon  his  first  appearance  at  the  Tuileries,  the  slight- 
est notice  from  an  august  personage  would  make  of 
him  a  fanatic,  even  if  the  simple  coils  of  the  minis- 
terial blandishments  had  not  already  had  that  effect. 
The  public  interest  being  thus  provided  for,  there 
remained  for  the  electoral  broker,  the  personal 
question:  to  ascertain,  that  is  to  say,  if  he  could 
find  enough  material  left  over  after  making  the 
deputy  to  fashion  a  father-in-law.     The  first  point, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  169 

the  dowry;  the  second  point,  the  daughter,  both 
were  satisfactory  to  him:  the  one  without  dazzling 
him;  the  other  without  any  self-deception  as  to  the 
imperfections  of  a  provincial  education  which  he 
would  have  to  make  over  from  beginning  to  end, 
but  which  was  not  likely  to  offer  any  serious  resist- 
ance to  his  cunning  conjugal  pedagogy.  At  one 
swoop,  Madame  Beauvisage  would  carry  away  her 
husband;  she  was  an  ambitious  creature  who, 
although  she  had  passed  forty -four,  still  had  the  air  of 
feeling  her  heart  beat.  His  best  game  perhaps  was 
to  begin  the  fire  of  a  feigned  attack  upon  her,  then 
turn  it  upon  the  daughter.  How  far  could  he  go  in 
taking  possession  of  the  advanced  works?  that  was 
a  question  to  be  answered  according  to  circum- 
stances. In  any  event  Maxime  felt  sure  that  his 
title  was  a  powerful  recommendation  with  the  two 
women,  to  begin  with,  as  well  as  his  reputation  as 
a  man  of  fashion  and  his  masterly  aptitude  for  in- 
itiating them  into  all  the  incomprehensible  and 
refined  mysteries  of  Parisian  life;  in  short,  as  the 
author  of  Beauvisage's  political  fortune,  which 
promised  such  a  blessed  revolution  in  the  lives  of 
the  two  Champenois  exiles,  might  not  Monsieur  de 
Trailles  anticipate  the  warmest  gratitude  on  their 
part?  He  was  confronted,  however,  by  one  serious 
obstacle  in  his  matrimonial  campaign.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  obtain  the  sanction  of  Grevin,  who  was  not 
the  man  to  assent  to  Cecile's  marriage  without  first 
informing  himself  thoroughly  as  to  the  whole  of  the 
suitor's  past.     Now,  when  that  investigation  had 


170  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

been  made,  was  it  not  to  be  feared  that  the  tem- 
pestuous biography  of  a  rake  of  fifty  would  not  pre- 
sent the  sum  total  of  securities  and  proprieties  which 
the  punctilious  old  man  in  his  prudence  might 
demand? 

In  the  governmental  mission,  so  to  speak,  with 
which  Monsieur  de  Trailles  was  entrusted  at  Arcis, 
might  be  discovered  evidence  of  a  gravity  of  char- 
acter and  an  amendment  of  his  ways  which  would 
go  far  to  offset  the  effect  of  certain  items  of  informa- 
tion. By  inducing  Gondreville,  before  the  nature 
of  that  mission  was  noised  abroad,  to  confide  it  to 
Grevin  under  the  most  solemn  injunctions  of 
secrecy,  the  old  notary's  self-love  would  be  flat- 
tered and  he  would  be  more  inclined  to  look  upon 
Maxime  with  consideration.  Furthermore  Maxime 
had  decided,  under  those  difficult  circumstances,  to 
resort  to  the  very  ancient  device  attributed  to  Gri- 
bouille,  which  consists  in  throwing  one's  self  into  the 
water  to  avoid  getting  wet.  Anticipating  the  old 
notary's  suspicions,  he  had  planned  that  he  himself 
should  appear  to  be  distrustful  of  his  own  virtue, 
and,  by  way  of  precaution  against  the  possible  in- 
fluence of  his  old  habits,  he  proposed  to  ask  that 
the  marriage  contract  should  include  an  express 
provision  that  the  parties  should  continue  to  enjoy 
their  separate  property.  In  that  way  they  would 
consider  themselves  quite  safe  against  any  relapse 
into  his  former  extravagant  ways.  As  for  him,  it 
would  be  his  business  to  acquire  sufficient  domin- 
ion over  his  young  wife  to  regain,  by  the  power  of 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I7I 

sentiment,  that  share  of  the  authority  of  a  husband 
of  which  the  contract  would  have  divested  him. 

At  first  nothing  occurred  to  cast  doubt  upon  the 
wisdom  and  keen-sightedness  of  all  these  ideas. 
Beauvisage's  candidacy,  as  soon  as  it  was  suggested, 
having  taken  fire  like  a  train  of  powder,  Monsieur 
de  Trailles,  in  view  of  the  success  of  all  his  efforts, 
deemed  the  chances  so  promising,  that  he  consid- 
ered himself  justified  in  writing  to  Rastignac  and 
informing  him  of  the  complete  and  successful  exe- 
cution of  his  mission.  But  suddenly  Beauvisage 
the  triumphant  found  himself  confronted  by  an 
opposing  candidate,  and,  be  it  said  in  passing, 
luckily  for  our  narrative,  this  competition  began 
under  conditions  so  exceptional  and  so  unforeseen, 
that  it  might  well  substitute  for  the  description  at 
first  anticipated  of  the  petty  accidents  of  an  elec- 
toral struggle,  the  interest  of  a  much  more  thrilling 
drama. 

The  man  who  appears  upon  the  stage  of  this  his- 
tory, entrusted  with  so  exalted  a  mission,  is  destined 
to  play  so  important  a  part  therein  that  it  becomes 
necessary  to  fix  his  place  by  retrospective  explana- 
tions of  some  length.  But  to  suspend  the  onward 
march  of  the  narrative  without  warning,  by  a  tardy 
explanation,  at  the  point  at  which  we  have  now 
arrived,  would  be  contrary  to  all  the  rules  of  art  and 
would  expose  us  to  the  wrath  of  the  critic,  that 
devoted  policeman  of  literary  orthodoxy.  In  pres- 
ence of  that  difficulty,  the  author  would  have  been 
sadly  embarrassed  had  not  his  lucky  star  placed  at 


172  THE  DEPUTY  FROM   ARCIS 

his  disposal  a  correspondence  wherein  are  collected 
and  set  forth,  with  a  vigor  and  animation  he  could 
never  have  imparted  to  them,  all  the  details  which 
it  becomes  indispensable  to  place  before  the  eyes 
of  the  reader.  These  letters  should  be  read  with 
care.  While  bringing  upon  the  stage  many  familiar 
actors  in  the  HUMAN  COMEDY,  they  give  a  multi- 
tude of  facts  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the 
conclusion  of  the  present  drama.  When  they  have 
been  transcribed  and  the  narrative  brought  down 
to  the  point  at  which  we  seem  to  abandon  it  to-day, 
it  will  of  itself,  and  without  the  slightest  shock, 
resume  its  course,  and  we  take  pleasure  in  persuad- 
ing ourselves  that,  from  the  temporary  introduction 
of  the  epistolary  form,  its  unity,  which  may  seem 
to  be  disturbed  for  a  moment,  will  prove  to  have 
derived  naught  but  profit. 


PART  SECOND 
INSTRUCTIVE    LETTERS 


(173) 


INSTRUCTIVE  LETTERS 


comte  de  l'estorade  to  marie-gaston  * 

Dear  Monsieur, 

In  accordance  with  your  wish,  I  have  seen 
Monsieur  le  Prefet  de  Police,  in  order  to  ascertain  if 
the  pious  purpose  which  you  mention  in  your  letter 
to  me  from  Carrara  would  meet  with  any  opposition 
from  the  authorities.  Monsieur  le  Prefet  replied 
that  the  imperial  decree  of  the  23d  Prairial,  year 
XII,  by  which  the  whole  subject  of  burials  is  still 
regulated,  sets  forth  in  most  unequivocal  terms  the 
right  of  every  person  to  use  his  own  property  as  a 
place  of  interment.  It  will  suffice  for  you  therefore 
to  provide  yourself  with  a  permit  at  the  prefecture 
of  Seine-et-Oise,  and  you  will  then  be  at  liberty, 
without  other  formality,  to  transport  the  mortal 
remains  of  Madame  Marie-Gaston  to  the  monument 
which  you  propose  to  erect  to  her  memory  in  your 
park  at  Ville-d'Avray.  And  now  I  will  venture  to 
offer  some  objections  on  my  own  account.  Are  you 
quite  sure  that  you  will  not  meet  with  some  opposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Chaulieus,  with  whom  you 
are  not  on  the  best  of  terms?     Indeed,  would  they 

*See  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  fVives. 

(175) 


176  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

not  be  justified,  up  to  a  certain  point,  in  complaining 
that,  by  removing  from  the  public  cemetery  to 
private,  enclosed  property  a  body  which  is  dear  to 
them  as  well  as  to  you,  you  assert  an  absolute 
right  to  regulate,  according  to  your  good  pleasure, 
such  visits  as  they  may  desire  to  make  to  the  place 
of  sepulture?  for,  it  is  clear  that  you  will  always  be 
at  liberty  to  forbid  their  entering  upon  your  property. 
I  am  well  aware  that,  applying  the  law  strictly,  the 
wife,  be  she  dead  or  alive,  belongs  to  the  husband, 
to  the  exclusion  of  her  own  kindred,  even  those 
who  are  nearest  to  her;  but  suppose  that,  under  the 
impulsion  of  the  ill-will  of  which  they  have  already 
given  you  more  proofs  than  one,  Madame  Marie- 
Gaston's  relatives  should  conceive  the  deplorable 
idea  of  carrying  their  opposition  into  the  courts — 
what  a  painful  subject  of  discussion  it  would  be! 
I  do  not  doubt  that  you  would  win  the  suit,  for  the 
Due  de  Chaulieu's  influence  is  no  longer  what  it 
was  under  the  Restoration;  but  have  you  thought 
of  all  the  poison  that  an  advocate's  tongue  might 
emit  upon  such  a  question,  when,  after  all,  he  will 
simply  echo  a  perfectly  justifiable  claim,  the  claim 
of  a  father,  a  mother  and  two  brothers  that  they  be 
not  dispossessed  of  the  sorrowful  happiness  of  pray- 
ing over  a  coffin?  Furthermore,  if  I  must  tell  you 
the  whole  of  my  thought,  I  cannot  without  the 
keenest  regret  observe  that  you  are  intent  upon 
furnishing  new  nourishment  to  your  grief,  which 
has  been  too  long  inconsolable. 
We  had  hoped  that  after  two  years  in  Italy,  you 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  \^^ 

would  return  more  resigned,  and  that  you  would  at 
last  make  up  your  mind  to  look  to  a  life  of  activity 
for  some  of  its  sources  of  distraction.  Evidently 
this  species  of  temple  which  you  propose  to  erect  to 
your  fervent  memories,  in  a  spot  where  they  are 
already  only  too  numerous  and  insistent,  can  have 
no  other  result  than  to  perpetuate  their  bitterness, 
and  I  am  unable  to  applaud  you  for  undertaking 
thus  to  regenerate  them.  However,  as  one  must 
serve  one's  friends  to  some  extent  in  their  manner, 
I  did  your  errand  to  Monsieur  Dorlange;  but,  I  must 
hasten  to  tell  you,  I  found  him  in  no  wise  eager  to 
enter  into  your  idea.  His  first  words,  when  I  intro- 
duced myself  to  him  as  coming  in  your  behalf,  were 
that  he  had  not  the  honor  of  your  acquaintance, 
and  that  reply,  strange  as  it  may  sound  to  your 
ears,  was  given  in  such  a  natural  way,  that  at  first 
I  thought  that  there  must  have  been  some  mistake 
due  to  a  similarity  of  names.  However,  as  your 
forgetful  friend  was  pleased  to  admit  a  little  later 
that  he  had  received  his  education  at  the  college  at 
Tours,  and  as,  still  by  his  own  confession,  he  proved 
to  be  the  self-same  Monsieur  Dorlange  who,  in 
183 1,  under  very  exceptional  circumstances,  won 
the  grand  prize  in  sculpture,  I  could  no  longer  doubt 
his  identity.  I  thereupon  explained  his  failure  of 
memory  to  my  own  mind  by  the  long  interruption 
in  your  relations,  of  which  you  yourself  had  told 
me.  Your  conduct  must  have  wounded  him  much 
more  deeply  than  you  imagined,  and  when  he 
pretended  to  have  forgotten  all  about  you,  even  to 


178  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

your  name,  it  was  simply  tliat  he  had  an  oppor- 
tunity for  revenge  which  he  was  not  sorry  to  grasp. 
But  that  is  not  the  real  obstacle. 

As  I  recalled  the  fraternal  intimacy  that  had 
existed  between  you  at  an  earlier  period,  I  could 
not  believe  that  Monsieur  Dorlange's  ill-will  was 
inexorable.  And  so,  after  setting  forth  the  nature 
of  the  work  with  which  it  was  proposed  to  entrust 
him,  I  was  preparing  to  enter  into  some  explanations 
concerning  the  grievances  that  he  might  cherish 
against  you,  when  I  suddenly  found  myself 
confronted  by  a  difficulty  of  the  most  unforeseen 
description. 

"Mow  Dieu,"  said  he,  "the  importance  of  the 
commission  you  are  kind  enough  to  offer  me,  the 
assurance  that  no  pains  or  expense  are  to  be  spared 
to  assure  the  grandeur  and  perfection  of  the  work, 
the  request  that  I  go  to  Carrara  to  superintend  in 
person  the  choice  and  cutting  of  the  marble — all 
these  constitute  a  genuine  bit  of  artistic  good  fortune, 
and  at  another  time  I  should  have  accepted  with 
the  utmost  eagerness.  But  at  this  moment,  when  I 
have  the  honor  of  receiving  you,  although  I  have 
not  as  yet  definitely  determined  to  abandon  the 
career  of  art,  I  am  perhaps  on  the  point  of  entering 
political  life.  My  friends  are  urging  me  to  come 
forward  as  a  candidate  at  the  approaching  elections, 
and  you  will  understand,  monsieur,  that,  if  I  should 
be  elected,  the  complications  of  my  parliamentary 
duties  and  my  introduction  to  an  entirely  new  mode 
of  life  would,  for  a  long  time  at  least,  prove  an 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I79 

obstacle  to  my  undertaking  the  work  of  which  you 
speak  with  the  necessary  singleness  of  purpose. 
Moreover,"  added  Monsieur  Doriange,  "I  should 
have  to  deal  with  a  great  sorrow,  which  seeks,  by 
this  projected  monument,  to  obtain  comfort  at  great 
expense.  That  sorrow  would  naturally  be  im- 
patient; I  should  be  slow,  distraught,  preoccupied; 
the  better  way,  therefore,  would  be  to  apply  else- 
where; which  fact  will  not  prevent  my  being,  as  I 
must  needs  be,  grateful  for  the  confidence  manifested 
in  me,  and  highly  honored  by  it." 

After  this  little  speech,  which  was,  as  you  see, 
very  well  turned,  and  by  which  it  seemed  to  me 
that  your  friend  was  rehearsing,  a  little  too  com- 
placently perhaps,  for  his  future  triumphs  in  the 
tribune,  I  thought  for  a  moment  of  suggesting  the 
hypothesis  of  his  failure  as  a  candidate,  and  of 
asking  him  if,  in  that  case,  it  would  not  be  well  for 
us  to  apply  to  him  again.  But  it  is  never  courteous 
to  cast  doubt  upon  an  electoral  triumph,  and  as  1  was 
in  the  presence  of  a  man  whose  feelings  were  very 
bitter,  I  did  not  choose,  by  an  inquisitiveness  that 
might  be  taken  in  bad  part,  to  run  the  risk  of 
throwing  oil  on  the  flames.  I  contented  myself 
therefore  with  expressing  my  regret  and  saying  that 
I  would  inform  you  of  the  result  of  my  errand.  It 
is  needless  to  add  that  within  a  few  days  I  shall 
know  what  to  think  as  to  the  result  of  this  parlia- 
mentary ambition  which  we  have  so  inopportunely 
encountered  on  our  road.  Personally,  I  have  a  thou- 
sand reasons  for  thinking  that  this  candidacy  is  a  mere 


l80  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

blind.  In  that  view,  perhaps  you  would  do  well  to 
write  to  Monsieur  Dorlange;  for  his  whole  attitude, 
while  perfectly  polite  and  seemly,  seemed  to  me  to 
denote  that  he  still  has  a  very  vivid  recollection  of 
apparent  grievances  for  which  you  will  have  to 
obtain  his  forgiveness.  I  know  that  it  may  wound 
your  sensitive  feelings  to  explain  the  sequence  of  the 
truly  exceptional  circumstances  under  which  your 
marriage  took  place;  for  that  very  process  will 
require  you  to  review  your  days  of  happiness, 
which  have  now  become  for  you  days  of  such  pain- 
ful memories.  But,  judging  from  what  I  could  see 
of  your  former  friend's  disposition  toward  you,  if 
you  are  extremely  desirous  that  he  should  give  you 
the  benefit  of  his  talent,  to  refrain  from  urging  your 
desire  yourself  and  to  act  further  by  proxy,  would 
be  to  continue  a  course  of  action  which  has  already 
seemed  to  him  ungracious,  and  to  invite  a  further 
refusal.  After  that,  if  the  step  I  urge  you  to  take 
should  prove  to  be  decidedly  beyond  your  strength, 
there  may  be  still  another  method.  In  every  matter 
in  which  I  have  ever  known  her  to  take  a  hand, 
Madame  de  I'Estorade  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  a 
clever  negotiator;  but,  in  this  particular  case,  I 
should  have  absolute  confidence  in  her  intervention. 
She  herself  was  compelled  to  put  up  with  outbreaks 
of  selfish  passions  on  the  part  of  Madame  Marie- 
Gaston  very  similar  to  the  treatment  by  which 
Monsieur  Dorlange  feels  aggrieved.  So  that  she 
would  be  better  fitted  than  anybody  to  explain  to  him 
the  imperious  impulses  of  that  absorbing  conjugal 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  l8l 

life  in  which  you  enveloped  yourself  so  closely, 
and  it  would  seem  to  me  very  extraordinary  if  the 
forbearance  and  indulgence  which  she  always  ex- 
hibited to  her  whom  she  called  her  dear  stray  lamb, 
should  not  prove  contagious  for  your  friend. 

You  have,  however,  plenty  of  leisure  to  think 
what  use  you  will  prefer  to  make  of  this  opening. 
Madame  de  I'Estorade  is  still  suffering  at  this 
moment  from  a  serious  indisposition,  the  result  of  a 
maternal  fright.  A  week  ago  our  dear  little  Nais 
came  within  an  ace  of  being  crushed  to  death 
before  her  eyes,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
courageous  intervention  of  a  stranger  who  threw 
himself  at  the  horses'  heads  and  stopped  them 
short,  God  knows  by  what  a  frightful  disaster  we 
should  have  been  stricken.  The  effect  of  that 
terrible  shock  upon  Madame  de  I'Estorade  was  a 
nervous  crisis  which  caused  us  serious  alarm  for  a 
short  time.  Although  she  is  much  better  to-day,  it 
will  still  be  several  days  before  she  will  be  in  a 
condition  to  receive  Monsieur  Dorlange,  assuming 
that  her  feminine  mediation  strikes  you  as  desirable 
and  likely  to  be  of  use.  But  I  ask  you  once  more, 
monsieur,  would  it  not  be  better  to  abandon  your 
idea  altogether?  An  enormous  outlay,  unpleasant 
clashing  with  the  Chaulieus,  and  a  renewing  of  your 
own  grief:  these  are  what  I  anticipate.  Which  does 
not  signify,  however,  that  I  do  not  continue  to  be  at 
your  service  in  everything  and  for  every  purpose,  as 
my  esteem  and  friendship  for  you  require. 


l82  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

COMTESSE  DE  L'ESTORADE  TO  MADAME  OCTAVE 
DE  CAMPS 

Paris,  February,  1839. 
Dear  Madame, 

Of  all  the  expressions  of  sympathy  called  forth  by 
the  terrible  accident  to  my  poor  child,  not  one  has 
touched  me  so  deeply  as  your  kind  letter.  In  reply 
to  your  affectionate  solicitude,  I  ought  to  say  that 
Nais  was  marvelously  calm  and  cool  throughout  the 
horrible  affair.  It  is  not  possible,  I  think,  to  see 
death  closer  at  hand;  but  the  brave  little  girl  did 
not  move  an  eyebrow  either  before  or  after  the 
occurrence,  and  everything  about  her  indicates  a 
most  resolute  character;  likewise,  thank  God!  there 
is  not  the  slightest  symptom  of  disturbance  in  her 
general  health.  As  for  myself,  I  was  thrown  into 
convulsions  by  my  unspeakable  terror,  and  for 
several  days  I  seem  to  have  alarmed  the  doctor, 
who  for  a  short  time  feared  for  my  reason.  Thanks 
to  the  strength  of  my  constitution,  I  am  now  almost 
recovered,  and  no  trace  would  remain  of  that  cruel 
excitement,  were  it  not  that,  by  a  strange  fatality, 
it  linked  itself  to  another  unpleasant  source  of  pre- 
occupation which  had  thought  fit  to  take  up  its 
abode  in  my  life  some  time  before. 

Even  before  the  renewed  assurance  you  so 
kindly  offer  me  of  your  feeling  for  me,  which  I 
already  knew  to  be  most  friendly,  I  had  thought  of 
seeking  the  assistance  of  your  friendship  and  your 
counsel;    to-day,   when    you   write   me   that  you 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I83 

should  be  happy  and  proud  if  you  could  hope  to 
remind  me,  even  in  the  slightest  degree,  of  poor 
Louise  de  Chaulieu,  the  dear  and  incomparable 
friend  of  whom  death  has  robbed  me,  how  can  1 
hesitate?  I  take  you  at  your  word,  dear  madame, 
and  the  exquisite  adroitness  which  formerly  assisted 
you  to  baffle  the  comments  of  fools,  when  the  im- 
possibility of  announcing  your  marriage  to  Monsieur 
de  Camps  left  you  at  the  mercy  of  insolent  and 
treacherous  curiosity — see  Madame  Firmiani — ;  the 
extraordinary  tact  which  you  displayed  at  that  time 
in  extricating  yourself  from  a  situation  in  which  all 
was  embarrassment  and  danger;  and,  lastly,  the 
marvelous  art  that  enabled  you,  while  keeping  your 
secret,  to  retain  all  your  womanly  dignity, — all 
these  I  earnestly  beseech  you  to  place  at  the 
service  of  that  preoccupation  of  which  I  spoke  a 
moment  ago.  Unfortunately,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
doctor's  advice,  one  must  describe  the  disease,  and  it 
is  in  that  connection  that  Monsieur  de  Camps,  with 
his  mechanical  genius,  seems  to  me  a  wicked  man. 
Thanks  to  those  wretched  iron  furnaces,  which  he 
conceived  the  idea  of  purchasing,  behold  you  are 
almost  dead  to  Paris  and  to  society.  Formerly,  when 
I  had  you  here,  under  my  hand,  I  could  have  told 
you  everything,  without  preparation,  without  em- 
barrassment, in  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  chat;  to-day 
I  must  make  up  my  mind  to  arrange  my  thoughts  in 
logical  order,  in  a  word,  to  observe  all  the  solemn 
forms  of  a  written  confidence. 

But,  after  all,  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  attack 


l84  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  matter  boldly,  and  as  I  must  come  to  it  at  last, 
after  all  my  preambles  and  circumlocutions,  why 
not  frankly  admit  that  the  subject  of  my  perplexity 
is  the  stranger  by  whom  my  poor,  dear  child  was 
rescued.  Stranger! — Let  us  understand  each  other: 
a  stranger  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade;  a  stranger  to 
everyone  who  can  possibly  have  mentioned  the 
accident  to  you;  a  stranger,  if  you  choose,  to  the 
whole  world,  but  not  to  your  humble  servant, 
whom,  for  three  months  past,  that  man  has  deigned 
to  honor  with  the  most  persistent  attentions.  The 
idea  that,  at  thirty-two  years,  mother  of  three 
children,  one  a  tall  boy  of  fifteen,  I  could  become 
the  object  of  a  passionate  attachment,  will  seem  no 
more  improbable  to  you  than  it  seems  to  me,  dear 
madame,  and  yet  that  is  the  absurd  and  unfortunate 
fact  against  which  I  have  to  defend  myself  to-day. 
And  when  I  say  that  this  stranger  is  known  to  me, 
I  must  make  another  distinction:  for  I  know  neither 
his  name  nor  his  place  of  abode  nor  anything  about 
him,  for  I  have  never  met  him  in  society;  and  I  may 
add  that,  although  he  wears  the  ribbon  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  there  is  nothing  in  his  appearance, 
utterly  devoid  of  refinement  as  it  is,  that  leads  me 
to  think  that  I  am  ever  likely  to  meet  him  there. 

It  was  at  the  church  of  Saint-Thomas  d'Aquin, 
where,  as  you  know,  I  used  to  go  every  day  to 
hear  mass,  that  this  tiresome  persecution  began  to 
take  shape.  Almost  every  day  too,  I  used  to  take 
my  children  to  walk  at  the  Tuileries,  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  having  installed  us  in  a  house  with  no 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  185 

garden.  That  habit,  soon  noted,  encouraged  my 
persecutor  to  renewed  activity,  and  I  had  to  resign 
myself  to  the  certainty  of  finding  him  in  my  path 
wherever  it  was  possible  to  meet  me  outside  of  my 
own  house.  I  noticed,  by  the  way,  that  this  singular 
suitor,  being  as  prudent  as  audacious,  always 
avoided  attending  me  to  my  own  door,  and  he 
manoeuvred  at  a  sufficient  distance  and  with  sufficient 
discretion  to  enable  me  to  cherish  at  all  events  the 
consoling  assurance  that  his  absurd  assiduity  could 
not  have  attracted  the  notice  of  any  of  those  persons 
who  happened  to  be  with  me.  But  God  alone 
knows  the  sacrifices  and  restraints  I  imposed  upon 
myself,  in  order  to  throw  him  off  the  scent!  The 
church  has  seen  me  on  Sundays  only;  I  have  often 
kept  my  dear  children  in  the  house,  endangering 
their  health,  or  have  invented  excuses  for  not 
accompanying  them;  and,  contrary  to  all  my  prin- 
ciples of  education  and  prudence,  I  have  left  them 
to  the  care  of  servants.  Calls,  shopping,  I  have 
done  nothing,  I  have  gone  nowhere  except  in  my 
carriage;  all  of  which  did  not  prevent  my  troublesome 
admirer,  just  as  I  had  concluded  that  I  had  baffled 
him  and  worn  out  his  patience,  from  being  at  hand 
to  play  such  a  noble  and  providential  part  in  the 
accident  that  happened  to  Nai's,  But,  frankly,  is 
not  the  great  burden  of  indebtedness  to  him  which 
I  must  henceforth  bear,  a  deplorable  complication 
in  an  already  embarrassing  situation.?  If  I  had 
really  been  annoyed  beyond  endurance  by  his 
persistence,  I  could  have  cut  his  attentions  short  by 


l86  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

some  means  or  other,  by  violent  measures  if 
necessary;  but  now,  if  he  appears  in  my  path,  how 
am  1  to  act?  what  course  am  I  to  adopt  with  him? 
Speak  to  him  and  thank  him?  But  in  that  case  I 
encourage  him,  and,  even  if  he  should  not  try  to 
take  advantage  of  my  act  to  change  the  nature  of 
our  relations,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  I  should  sew 
him  to  my  skirts  more  firmly  than  ever.  Shall  1, 
then,  refrain  from  speaking  to  him  and  seem  not  to 
recognize  him?  But  just  think,  madame,  a  mother! 
a  mother  who  owes  her  daughter's  life  to  him  and 
who  seems  not  to  be  conscious  of  it  and  has  not  a 
word  of  gratitude  for  him! 

That,  however,  is  the  intolerable  alternative  that 
confronts  me,  and  you  can  judge  now  whether  I 
need  the  advice  of  your  wisdom!  What  must  I  do 
to  put  an  end  to  the  unpleasant  practice  this  gentle- 
man has  adopted  of  being  my  shadow?  How  can  I 
thank  him  without  overexciting  his  imagination,  or 
avoid  thanking  him  without  having  to  endure  count- 
less rebukes  from  my  conscience?  Such  is  the 
problem  submitted  to  your  wisdom.  If  you  will  do 
me  the  favor  of  solving  it  for  me — and  I  know  no 
one  who  is  more  capable  of  so  doing — I  shall  have 
to  add  my  gratitude  to  all  the  affectionate  sentiments 
with  which,  dear  madame,  you  know  my  heart  to 
be  already  filled. 

COMTE  DE   L'ESTORADE  TO  MARIE-GASTON 
Paris,  February,  1839. 
It  may  be,  dear  monsieur,  that  the  public  Journals 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  187 

will  anticipate  me  in  telling  you  of  a  meeting  that  has 
taken  place  between  your  friend, Monsieur  Dorlange, 
and  the  Due  de  Rhetore.  But,  by  announcing  the 
bare  fact,  for  custom  and  propriety  do  not  permit 
them  to  go  into  the  causes  of  the  quarrel  at  length, 
the  newspapers  will  simply  arouse  your  curiosity 
without  satisfying  it.  Luckily  I  have  learned  all  the 
details  of  the  affair  from  a  very  trustworthy  source, 
and  I  hasten  to  transmit  them  to  you;  they  are 
calculated  to  interest  you  to  the  highest  degree. 

Three  days  ago,  that  is  to  say  in  the  evening  of 
the  same  day  on  which  I  called  on  Monsieur  Dor- 
lange, the  Due  de  Rhetore  occupied  an  orchestra 
stall  at  the  Opera.  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles, 
recently  returned  from  a  diplomatic  mission  that  has 
kept  him  away  from  Paris  several  years,  sat  beside 
him.  During  the  entr'acte  those  gentlemen  did  not 
go  to  the  foyer;  but,  as  is  frequently  done  in  the 
theatre,  they  stood  up  with  their  backs  to  the  stage, 
and  consequently  facing  Monsieur  Dorlange,  who 
was  sitting  behind  them  and  seemed  deeply 
engrossed  in  reading  the  evening  paper.  There 
had  been  that  day  a  most  scandalous  session,  what 
is  called  an  interesting  session  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  Conversation  having  turned  naturally 
enough  to  those  events  in  Parisian  society  which 
had  happened  during  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles's 
absence,  he  made  this  remark,  which  naturally 
aroused  Monsieur  Dorlange's  attention: 

"What!  that  poor  Madame  de  Macumer,  such  a 
sad  end  and  such  an  extraordinary  marriage!" 


l88  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Oh!"  replied  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  in  his  usual 
high-pitched  voice,  "my  sister  had  too  vivid  an 
imagination  not  to  be  a  little  fanciful  and  romantic. 
She  had  loved  Monsieur  de  Macumer,  her  first  hus- 
band, passionately;  but  one  tires  of  everything 
after  a  while,  even  of  widowhood.  This  Monsieur 
Marie-Gaston  fell  in  her  way.  He  is  agreeable 
enough  physically;  my  sister  was  rich,  he  deeply 
in  debt;  so  he  made  himself  agreeable  and  attentive 
in  proportion,  and  on  my  word!  the  rascal  played 
his  cards  so  well  that  after  succeeding  Monsieur  de 
Macumer  and  killing  his  wife  with  jealousy,  he  ex- 
torted from  the  poor  doting  creature  all  that  the  law 
allowed  her  to  dispose  of.  Louise's  property 
amounted  to  at  least  twelve  hundred  thousand 
francs,  to  say  nothing  of  magnificent  furniture  and 
a  lovely  little  villa  she  built  at  Ville  d'Avray.  Half 
of  the  inheritance  fell  to  my  gentleman,  the  other 
half  to  the  Due  and  Duchesse  de  Chaulieu,  my 
father  and  mother,  who  were  legally  entitled  to 
that  portion.  As  for  my  brother  Lenoncourt  and 
myself,  our  share  was  disherison,  pure  and  simple." 

As  soon  as  your  name  was  mentioned,  dear  mon- 
sieur. Monsieur  Dorlange  put  down  his  paper;  and 
when  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  had  finished  his  remarks, 
he  rose  and  said  to  him: 

"Excuse  me.  Monsieur  le  Due,  if  I  venture  to 
interpose  in  this  matter;  but  I  am  bound  in  con- 
science to  say  to  you  that  you  are  as  utterly  misin- 
formed as  it  is  possible  to  be." 

"I  beg  your  pardon?"  said  the  duke,  screwing  up 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  189 

his  eyes  and  speaking  in  the  supremely  contemptu- 
ous tones  which  you  can  imagine. 

"I  say,  Monsieur  le  Due,  that  Marie-Gaston  is  an 
old  playmate  of  mine,  that  he  has  never  been  con- 
sidered a  rascal,  that  he  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  most 
honorable  and  talented  man,  and  that,  far  from 
having  caused  his  wife's  death  of  jealousy,  he 
made  her  perfectly  happy  during  the  three  years 
of  their  married  life.     As  for  the  inheritance — " 

"Have  you  reflected  upon  the  result  of  this  per- 
formance of  yours?"  demanded  the  Due  de  Rhe- 
tore,  interrupting  him. 

"I  have,  monsieur,  and  I  repeat,  as  to  the  prop- 
erty inherited  by  Marie-Gaston  by  virtue  of  his 
wife's  wish  solemnly  expressed  in  her  testament, 
he  was  so  little  desirous  of  it  that,  to  my  certain 
knowledge,  he  is  on  the  point  of  expending  two  to 
three  hundred  thousand  francs  in  the  erection  of  a 
monument  to  her  for  whom  he  has  never  ceased  to 
weep." 

"Why,  monsieur,  who  then  are  you?"  the  Due 
de  Rhetore  again  interposed,  with  an  impatience 
which  he  found  it  more  and  more  difficult  to  control. 

"I  shall  have  the  honor  to  tell  you  in  a  moment," 
replied  Monsieur  Dorlange;  "but  you  will  allow  me 
to  add  that  Madame  Marie-Gaston  could  dispose  of 
this  property,  of  which  you  have  received  no  share, 
without  the  slightest  remorse;  her  whole  fortune 
came  to  her  from  her  first  husband.  Monsieur  de 
Macumer;  and  before  that  she  had  relinquished  her 
claim  to  a  share  in  her  father's  property  to  set  up 


igO  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

an  establishment  for  monsieur  your  brother,  the 
Due  de  Lenoncourt-Givry,  who,  being  a  younger 
son,  had  not,  like  yourself,  monsieur,  the  good  for- 
tune to  be  preferred  to  his  brothers  and  sisters." 

With  that,  Monsieur  Dorlange  felt  in  his  pocket 
for  his  card  case,  which  was  not  there. 

"I  have  no  card  with  me,"  he  said  at  last;  "but 
my  name  is  Dorlange,  a  comedy  name,  easy  to 
remember,  42  Rue  de  I'Ouest." 

"Not  a  very  central  quarter,"  observed  Monsieur 
de  Rhetore  ironically. 

At  the  same  time  he  turned  to  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles  and  said  to  him,  thus  constituting  him 
one  of  his  seconds: 

"1  beg  your  pardon,  my  dear  fellow,  for  sending 
you  on  the  voyage  of  discovery  you  will  have  to 
undertake  for  me  to-morrow  morning." 

He  added,  almost  in  the  same  breath: 

"Are  you  coming  to  the  foyer?  we  can  talk  there 
more  quietly  and  above  all  more  safely." 

From  his  manner  of  emphasizing  the  last  word  it 
was  impossible  to  misunderstand  the  insulting  mean- 
ing he  intended  to  impart  to  it.  When  the  two 
noblemen  had  left  the  hall,  the  scene  having  caused 
no  commotion  because  most  of  the  surrounding 
stalls  were  unoccupied  during  the  entr'acte.  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  saw  Monsieur  Stidmann,  the  famous 
sculptor,  at  the  other  end  of  the  orchestra.  He 
went  up  to  him  and  asked  him: 

"Do  you  happen  to  have  a  note-book  or  pocket 
memorandum  with  you?" 


THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I9I 

"Yes,  always." 

"Will  you  lend  it  to  me  and  allow  me  to  tear  out 
a  leaf?  An  idea  has  just  come  into  my  mind  that  I 
should  not  like  to  lose.  If  I  don't  find  you  at  the 
end  of  the  play  to  return  it  to  you,  it  shall  be  at 
your  house  to-morrow  morning  without  fail." 

Returning  to  his  seat.  Monsieur  Dorlange  sketched 
something  in  haste,  and  when  the  curtain  rose  and 
Messieurs  de  Rhetore  and  de  Ronquerolles  resumed 
their  places,  he  touched  the  duke  lightly  on  the 
shoulder  and  passed  him  his  sketch. 

"My  card,"  said  he,  "which  I  have  the  honor  to 
present  to  your  lordship." 

The  card  was  a  charming  sketch  of  a  piece  of 
monumental  architecture  framed  by  a  landscape. 
Beneath  it  was  written:  Plan  of  a  monument  to  he 
erected  to  the  memory  of  Madame  Marie-Gaston,  nee 
Chaulieu,  by  her  husband,  after  designs  by  Charles 
Dorlange,  sculptor,  Rue  de  I' Quest,  42.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  to  inform  Monsieur  de 
Rhetore  in  a  more  delicate  way  that  he  had  to  do 
with  a  worthy  adversary,  and  you  will  notice, 
furthermore,  my  dear  monsieur,  that  Monsieur 
Dorlange  thus  found  a  way  to  emphasize  his  con- 
tradiction, by  giving  body,  so  to  speak,  to  his  asser- 
tion concerning  your  disinterestedness  and  the 
sincerity  of  your  conjugal  sorrow. 

The  performance  came  to  an  end  without  further 
incident.  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  and  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles  separated.  The  latter  thereupon 
accosted  Monsieur  Dorlange  with  much  courtesy. 


192  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and,  with  a  view  of  effecting  an  accommodation,  he 
called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that,  even  though  he 
might  be  in  the  right  as  to  his  facts,  his  conduct 
had  been  offensive  and  unusual;  that  Monsieur  de 
Rhetore  had  certainly  shown  great  forbearance,  and 
that  he  certainly  would  be  content  with  the  slight- 
est expression  of  regret;  in  short,  he  said  all  that 
can  be  said  on  such  an  occasion.  Monsieur  Dor- 
lange  would  listen  to  nothing  that  resembled  an 
apology,  and  the  next  day  he  received  a  visit  from 
Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles  and  General  de  Montri- 
veau  on  behalf  of  Monsieur  de  Rhetore.  Again 
Monsieur  Dorlange  was  urged  to  put  his  statements 
in  some  different  form.  But  your  friend  adhered  to 
this  ultimatum: 

"Will  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  withdraw  the  words 
which  I  felt  called  upon  to  take  up?  in  that  case,  1 
will  withdraw  mine." 

"But  that  is  impossible,"  they  remonstrated. 
"Monsieur  de  Rhetore  is  personally  insulted;  you 
are  not.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  is  convinced  that 
Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  has  done  him  a  wrong.  We 
ought  always  to  be  indulgent  to  wounded  self- 
interests;  we  never  can  obtain  absolute  justice  from 
them." 

"The  result  being,"  rejoined  Monsieur  Dorlange, 
"that  Monsieur  le  due  will  continue  to  slander  my 
friend  at  his  pleasure:  in  the  first  place,  because 
Marie-Gaston  is  in  Italy,  and  in  the  second  place, 
because  he  will  always  be  extremely  reluctant  to 
go  to  extremes  with  his  wife's  brother.     It  is,"  he 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I93 

added,  "his  comparative  helplessness  to  defend 
himself  that  makes  it  my  right,  yes,  my  duty,  to 
intervene.  It  must  have  been  by  a  special  dispen- 
sation of  Providence  that  I  was  at  hand  to  seize  on 
the  wing  some  of  the  wicked  reports  that  are  being 
circulated  secretly,  and  since  Monsieur  le  Due  de 
Rhetore  does  not  choose  to  modify  his  statements  in 
any  way,  we  will  go  on  with  the  affair  to  the  end, 
if  you  please." 

As  discussion  was  powerless  to  change  these 
terms,  the  duel  became  inevitable,  and  during  the 
day  the  conditions  were  arranged  between  the 
seconds  of  the  two  parties.  The  meeting  was 
appointed  for  the  next  day,  pistols  being  the 
weapons  selected.  On  the  ground  Monsieur  Dor- 
lange  was  perfectly  cool  and  self-possessed.  After 
they  had  exchanged  one  shot  without  result,  the 
seconds  suggested  putting  an  end  to  the  combat. 

"Nonsense,  one  more  shot!"  he  said  gayly,  as  if 
it  were  a  matter  of  firing  at  manikins  in  a  shooting- 
gallery. 

At  the  second  shot  he  was  wounded  in  the  fleshy 
part  of  the  thigh,  the  wound  being  in  reality  not  at 
all  dangerous  but  causing  him  to  lose  much  blood. 
While  they  were  taking  him  to  the  carriage  that 
had  brought  him  to  the  ground,  as  Monsieur  de 
Rhetore,  who  was  most  zealous  in  his  attentions, 
happened  to  be  close  at  hand,  he  said: 

"This  does  not  prove  that  Marie-Gaston  is  not  a 
man  of  honor  and  a  heart  of  gold." 

And  the  next  moment  he  fainted. 
13 


194  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

This  duel,  as  you  can  imagine,  dear  monsieur, 
has  made  a  tremendous  noise,  and  I  iiave  had  to  do 
nothing  more  than  listen,  to  gather  an  abundance  of 
information  concerning  Monsieur  Dorlange,  for  he 
was  the  lion  of  the  hour  throughout  the  day  yester- 
day, and  it  was  impossible  to  enter  a  house  without 
finding  him  on  the  carpet.  I  reaped  the  bulk  of  my 
harvest  at  Madame  de  Montcornet's;  she  receives 
many  artists  and  men  of  letters,  as  you  know,  and, 
to  give  you  an  idea  of  the  position  your  friend 
occupies,  I  will  simply  report  a  conversation  at 
which  I  was  present  last  evening  in  the  countess's 
salon.  Those  who  took  part  were  Monsieur  Emile 
Blondet  of  the  Debuts,  Monsieur  Bixiou,  the  carica- 
turist, one  of  the  best-informed  ferrets  of  Paris;  both 
of  them,  I  think,  are  acquaintances  of  yours,  but  at 
all  events  I  am  sure  of  your  intimacy  with  Joseph 
Bridau,  our  great  painter,  who  took  the  third  part  in 
that  conversation,  for  I  remember  that  he  and 
Daniel  d'Arthez  were  the  witnesses  at  your  mar- 
riage. 

"Dorlange's  first  works,"  Joseph  Bridau  was 
saying,  as  I  approached  to  listen,  "were  magnificent. 
There  were  indications  of  the  great  master  in  the 
work  he  entered  in  the  competition  in  sculpture,  to 
which  the  Academy,  under  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion,  decided  to  award  the  prize,  although  it  had 
poked  fun  at  his  programme  with  much  zest." 

"True,"  added  Monsieur  Bixiou;  "and  the 
Pandora  he  exhibited  in  1837,  on  his  return  from 
Rome,  is  also  a  very  remarkable  figure.     But  as  it 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I95 

brought  him  everything  at  one  stroke,  the  cross, 
orders  from  the  government  and  the  city,  and  thirty 
or  more  amazing  articles  in  the  newspapers,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  he  would  find  it  very  hard  to 
recover  from  that  triumph." 

"That,"  said  Emile  Blondet,  "is  an  opinion  a  la 
Bixiou." 

"Undoubtedly,  and  well-founded,  too.  Do  you 
know  the  man?" 

"No;  one  meets  him  nowhere." 

"Exactly;  that  is  the  place  he  most  frequents. 
He's  a  bear,  but  a  bear  by  design,  a  pretentious 
and  deliberative  bear." 

"I  do  not  consider,"  said  Joseph  Bridau,  "that 
unsociability  is  a  very  bad  disposition  for  an  artist. 
What  has  a  sculptor  of  all  people  to  gain  in  salons, 
where  gentlemen  and  ladies  have  adopted  the  habit 
of  appearing  fully  clad?" 

"In  the  first  place  a  sculptor  finds  diversion  in 
salons,  which  prevents  his  becoming  a  monomaniac 
or  dreamer;  and  then  he  learns  there  how  the  world 
is  made,  and  that  1839  ^^  neither  the  15th  nor  the 
i6th  century." 

"What's  that?"  said  Emile  Blondet,  "does  the 
poor  fellow  have  such  illusions  as  that?" 

"Does  he?  he'll  talk  to  you  glibly  about  living 
the  lives  of  the  great  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages  with 
the  universality  of  their  studies  and  their  knowledge, 
and  that  horrible  life  of  toil,  of  which  the  customs  of 
a  half-barbarous  society  will  give  you  some  idea,  but 
which  ours  no  longer  allows.    He  does  not  observe, 


196  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  artless  dreamer,  that  civilization,  by  introducing 
strange  complications  into  social  relations  absorbs 
thrice  as  much  time  for  business,  for  selfish  interests, 
for  pleasure,  as  a  less  advanced  society  expends  for 
the  same  objects.  Look  at  the  savage  in  his  cabin 
— he  has  nothing  to  do!  But  we,  with  the  Bourse, 
the  opera,  newspapers,  parliamentary  debates, 
salons,  elections,  railroads,  the  Cafe  de  Paris  and 
the  National  Guard — at  what  moment  of  the  day,  I 
pray  to  know,  are  we  to  work?" 

"A  most  excellent,  sluggard's  theory!"  laughed 
Emile  Blondet. 

"Why  no,  my  dear  fellow,  I  am  in  the  right. 
The  curfew,  deuce  take  it!  no  longer  rings  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  last  night  even  my  concierge  Rave- 
nouillet  had  an  evening  party — See  The  Involuntary 
Comedians — ;  it  may  be  that  I  made  a  boorish  mistake 
by  declining  the  indirect  invitation  he  gave  me  to  be 
present." 

"However,"  said  Joseph  Bridau,  "it  is  evident 
that  if  one  doesn't  meddle  with  the  business,  nor 
the  private  affairs  nor  the  pleasures  of  his  age,  he 
will  eventually  have  a  very  neat  little  capital  in  the 
way  of  time  saved.  Independently  of  his  orders 
Dorlange  has  some  little  property  of  his  own,  I 
believe;  so  there  is  no  reason  why  he  shouldn't 
arrange  his  life  as  he  chooses." 

"But  you  see  he  goes  to  the  Opera,  as  it  was 
there  he  picked  up  his  duel!  You  make  a  great 
mistake,  too,  when  you  represent  him  as  holding  aloof 
from  all  contact  with   contemporary  environment, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  I97 

for  I  happen  to  know  that  he  is  on  the  point  of 
connecting  himself  with  it  by  the  noisiest  and  most 
absorbing  mechanism  of  the  social  machine,  to-wit, 
political  interest!" 

"He  proposes  to  become  a  politician,  does  he?" 
said  Emile  Blondet  scornfully. 

"Doubtless  that  enters  into  his  famous  programme 
of  universality,  and  we  must  see  how  logically  and 
persistently  he  carries  out  the  idea!  Last  year  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  fell  into  his  lap 
from  the  sky,  and  my  man  at  once  purchases  a 
hovel  on  Rue  Saint-Martin  in  order  to  provide  him- 
self with  the  necessary  electoral  qualification;  and 
then  he  made  another  pretty  little  speculation:  with 
the  rest  of  the  money  he  became  a  shareholder  in 
the  newspaper,  Le  National,  where  I  meet  him 
whenever  the  fancy  takes  me  to  go  and  have  a 
laugh  at  the  republican  Utopia.  He  has  his 
flatterers  there;  they  have  persuaded  him  that  he's 
a  born  orator  and  would  produce  the  greatest  effect 
in  the  Chamber.  They  are  already  talking  of 
finding  a  seat  for  him,  and  in  their  moments  of 
enthusiasm  they  go  so  far  as  to  discover  a  distant 
resemblance  to  Danton." 

"That  is  the  merest  burlesque,"  said  Emile 
Blondet. 

I  do  not  know  if  you  have  noticed,  my  dear 
monsieur,  that  men  of  genuine  talent  have  always 
a  great  store  of  indulgence  for  everybody.  At  that 
point  Joseph  Bridau  furnished  a  proof  of  what  I  say. 

"I  agree  with  you,"  he  said,  "that  if  Dorlange 


198  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

starts  upon  that  path  he  is  well-nigh  lost  to  art. 
But,  after  all,  why  should  he  not  succeed  in  the 
Chamber?  He  expresses  himself  with  great  facility 
and  seems  to  me  to  have  an  abundance  of  ideas  at 
his  disposal.  Look  at  Canalis;  when  he  was  chosen 
deputy,  everybody  said:  *  Pshaw!  a  poet!' — which 
did  not  prevent  his  making  a  great  name  as  an 
orator  and  becoming  a  minister." 

"But  the  first  thing  is,  to  get  into  the  Chamber," 
said  Emile  Blondet;  "where  does  Dorlange  expect 
to  stand?" 

"For  one  of  the  National's  rotten  boroughs, 
naturally.  I  don't  know  however  that  the  par- 
ticular college  of  electors  is  selected  as  yet." 

"As  a  general  rule,"  said  the  publicist  of  the 
Dibats,  "to  obtain  a  seat  in  the  Chamber,  even 
with  the  warmest  support  of  a  party,  one  must  have 
considerable  political  notoriety  or,  at  least,  some- 
thing substantial  in  the  way  of  fortune  or  family, 
somewhere  in  the  provinces.  Is  Dorlange  known 
to  have  any  of  those  elements  of  success?" 

"Substantiality  in  the  matter  of  family  would  be 
an  especially  formidable  obstacle  to  him,  for,  in  his 
case,  family  is  lacking  to  a  desperate  degree." 

"Really,"  said  Blondet;  "is  he  a  natural  child?", 

"As  natural  as  a  child  can  be,  father  and  mother 
both  unknown.  But  I  prefer  to  think,  for  my  part, 
that  he  will  be  elected;  the  procession  of  his 
political  ideas  will  be  a  curiosity!" 

"He  must  be  a  republican,  if  he's  a  friend  of 
messieurs  of  Le  National  and  looks  like  Danton." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  1 99 

''Undoubtedly,  but  he  has  a  sovereign  contempt 
for  his  co-religionists,  saying  that  they  are  good  for 
nothing  but  feats  of  strength,  violence  and  making 
a  great  noise  with  their  mouths.  Provisionally 
therefore  he  would  have  a  monarchy  encompassed 
by  republican  institutions;  but  he  asserts  that  our 
citizen  royalty  must  inevitably  be  destroyed  by  the 
abuse  of  court  influence,  which  he  bluntly  calls 
corruption.  That  would  lead  him  to  make  overtures 
to  the  little  church  of  the  Left  Centre;  but  there 
again — for  there  are  always  buts — he  sees  nothing 
but  a  collection  of  ambitious  men  and  eunuchs, 
unwittingly  smoothing  the  way  for  a  revolution 
which  he  sees  rising  above  the  horizon,  with  the 
greatest  regret  so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  because, 
he  says,  the  masses  are  too  ill  prepared  and  too 
unintelligent  not  to  let  it  escape  from  their  hands. 
He  laughs  at  legitimacy;  he  refuses  to  admit  that  it 
is  a  principle  entitled  to  any  consideration.  To  his 
mind  it  is  simply  a  more  definite  and  more  perfect 
form  of  hereditary  monarchy,  and  he  accords  it  no 
other  superiority  than  that  of  old  wine  to  new.  At 
the  same  time  that  he  is  not  a  legitimist,  not  a 
conservative,  not  a  partisan  of  the  Left  Centre,  and 
is  a  republican  without  desiring  a  republic,  he  poses 
courageously  as  a  Catholic,  and  he  rides  the  hobby- 
horse of  that  party,  liberty  of  education;  but  this 
same  man,  who  desires  free  education,  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  afraid  of  the  Jesuits,  and  he  still  harps, 
as  they  did  in  1829,  on  the  encroachments  of  the 
party  of  the  priesthood  and  the  congregation.     In 


200  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

fine,  do  you  know  the  great  party  that  he  proposes 
to  form  in  the  Chamber,  and  to  be  the  leader  of? 
The  party  of  justice,  of  impartiality,  of  honesty; 
as  if  such  a  party  could  not  be  found  in  the  parlia- 
mentary cave  and  popote,  and  as  if,  furthermore,  all 
shades  of  opinion  had  not  from  time  immemorial 
hoisted  that  flag  to  disguise  their  hideous  empti- 
ness." 

"So  that  he  absolutely  renounces  sculpture,  does 
he?"  said  Joseph  Bridau. 

"Not  yet;  he  is  just  completing  a  statue  of  some 
saint  or  other,  but  he  won't  let  anybody  see  it  and 
doesn't  intend  to  exhibit  it  this  year.  He  has  his 
own  ideas  on  that  subject  too." 

"Which  are?"  said  Blondet. 

"That  Catholic  works  should  not  be  delivered 
over  to  the  judgment  of  critics  and  the  gaze  of  a 
public  equally  corrupted  with  scepticism;  that  they 
should,  without  passing  through  the  tumult  of  the 
world,  be  deposited,  devoutly  and  without  display, 
in  the  place  for  which  they  are  intended." 

"By  the  way!  think  of  so  fervent  a  Catholic 
fighting  a  duel!"  observed  Emile  Blondet. 

"There's  something  better  than  that.  He's  a 
Catholic  and  he  lives  with  a  woman  he  brought 
back  with  him  from  Italy,  a  sort  of  goddess  of 
liberty,  who  serves  him  at  once  as  model  and 
housekeeper." 

"What  a  tongue  that  Bixiou  has,  and  what  a 
bureau  of  information  he  is!"  said  his  two  com- 
panions as  they  separated. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  20I 

They  were  summoned  by  Madame  de  Montcornet 
to  take  a  cup  of  tea  from  her  hand. 

You  see,  dear  monsieur,  that  Monsieur  Dorlange's 
political  aspirations  are  hardly  taken  seriously,  and 
that  people  have  just  about  the  same  idea  of  their 
result  as  that  I  predicted.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you 
will  write  him  very  soon  to  thank  him  for  the 
warmth  with  which  he  defended  you  against 
calumny.  That  courageous  act  of  self-sacrificing 
devotion  has  given  me  a  genuine  sympathetic  feel- 
ing for  him  and  I  shall  be  overjoyed  to  see  you  make 
use  of  the  influence  of  your  former  friendship  to 
turn  him  aside  from  the  deplorable  path  upon  which 
he  is  about  to  enter.  I  pass  no  judgment  on  the 
other  obliquities  of  vision  attributed  to  him  by 
Monsieur  Bixiou,  who  is  very  trenchant  and  very 
unreliable,  and,  like  Joseph  Bridau,  I  should  be 
disposed  to  look  upon  them  as  very  venial;  but  to 
my  mind  he  would  make  a  mistake  to  be  forever 
regretted,  if  he  should  abandon  a  career  in  which 
he  already  has  an  advantageous  position,  to  throw 
himself  into  the  melee  of  politics.  Preach  at  him 
therefore  with  all  your  strength,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
bind  him  anew  to  his  art.  You  are  personally 
interested  in  having  him  take  that  course,  if  you 
still  propose  to  entrust  to  him  the  work  he  has 
hitherto  refused  to  undertake.  As  to  the  explana- 
tion which  I  advised  you  to  have  with  him,  I  can 
safely  say  that  your  task  is  much  simplified.  I  do 
not  now  consider  that  you  are  called  upon  to  go  into 
any  of  the  details  which  might  be  too  painful  for 


202  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

you.  Madame  de  I'Estorade,  to  whom  I  suggested 
the  rdle  of  mediator  which  I  had  in  mind  for  her, 
accepted  it  very  willingly/and  she  is  confident  that 
in  half  an  hour's  conversation  she  can  scatter  all 
the  clouds  that  can  possibly  exist  between  you  and 
your  friend. 

I  sent  to  obtain  news  of  him  while  I  was  writing 
this  long  letter:  the  report  is  as  favorable  as 
possible,  and  the  doctors  are  not  in  the  least 
anxious  concerning  him,  unless  some  extraordinary 
and  altogether  unforeseen  complication  should  arise. 
It  seems,  by  the  way,  that  he  is  an  object  of  general 
interest,  for,  as  my  servant  expresses  it,  people  are 
standing  in  line  waiting  their  turn  to  inscribe  their 
names  in  his  visitors*  book. 

I  ought  to  say  also  that  Monsieur  de  Rhetore  is 
not  liked.  He  is  very  stiff  and  by  no  means  a 
bright  man.  How  different  from  her  who  holds  so 
large  a  place  in  our  fondest  memories!  She  was 
simple  and  kindly,  without  ever  derogating  from 
her  dignity,  and  nothing  could  be  compared  with  the 
lovable  qualities  of  her  heart,  unless  it  were  the 
charms  of  her  mind. 


COMTESSE    DE   L'ESTORADE   TO   MADAME    OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS 

Paris,  February,  1839. 
Nothing  could  be  more  judicious  than  all  that  you 
write  me,  dear  madame;  it  was  the  most  probable 
thing  in  the  world  that  at  our  next  meeting,  my 
tormenter  would  not  hesitate  to  accost  me.  His 
heroism  gave  him  the  right  to  do  it  and  the  simplest 
politeness  made  it  his  duty.  Under  pain  of  being 
considered  the  most  boorish  of  sighing  swains,  he 
should  have  come  and  made  inquiries  concerning 
the  effect  upon  Nais's  health  and  mine  of  the 
accident  in  which  he  came  to  our  aid.  But,  contrary 
to  all  my  anticipations,  he  persisted  in  not  descend- 
ing from  his  cloud;  and  so,  under  the  inspiration  of 
your  sage  advice,  I  resolutely  decided  upon  my  own 
course.  As  the  mountain  would  not  come  to  me,  I 
would  go  to  the  mountain;  like  Hippolyte  in  Thera- 
menes'  story,  I  would  ride  straight  at  the  monster^ 
and  discharge  my  gratitude  at  him  point-blank. 
Like  myself,  dear  madame,  I  realized  that  the  really 
dangerous  side  of  this  absurd  persecution  was  its 
duration,  and  the  inevitable  scandal  with  which  it 
threatened  me  sooner  or  later.  The  possibility  that 
my  servants,  my  children  might  at  any  moment 
discover  the  secret;  the  disagreeable  comments  to 
which  I  should  be  exposed  if  it  were  discovered  by 
C203) 


204  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

strangers;  and,  above  all,  the  idea  of  the  ridiculous 
affair  coming  to  the  ears  of  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
and  driving  him  to  extremities  which  I  could  foresee 
only  too  well,  in  view  of  his  southern  blood  and  the 
memories  of  his  military  past;  all  this  had  excited 
me  to  such  a  pitch  that  I  cannot  describe  my 
feelings,  and  even  your  forebodings  would  have 
been  more  than  realized. — Not  only  did  I  resign 
myself  to  the  necessity  of  speaking  first  to  my 
gentleman;  but  1  would  compel  him  to  tell  me  his 
name  and  his  place  of  abode  on  the  specious  pretence 
that  my  husband  intended  to  call  on  him;  then,  if 
he  should  prove  to  be  an  eligible  person  in  any 
sense  of  the  word,  I  would  ask  him  to  dinner  the 
next  day,  having  fully  decided  to  fasten  the  wolf  in 
the  sheepfold.  After  all,  where  was  the  danger? 
If  he  had  the  slightest  shadow  of  common  sense, 
when  he  saw  the  terms  on  which  I  live  with 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  my  ferocious  passion  for  my 
children,  as  you  used  jokingly  to  call  it, — in  a  word, 
all  the  virtuous  economy  of  my  home  life,  could  he 
fail  to  realize  the  fruitlessness  of  his  persistence? 
In  any  event,  whether  he  proved  incorrigible  or  not, 
his  ardor  would  certainly  be  deprived  of  its  open  air 
character.  If  I  were  still  to  be  beset  by  him,  it 
would  at  least  be  in  my  own  house,  and  I  should  no 
longer  have  to  deal  with  one  of  the  coursing  enter- 
prises to  which  we  are  all  more  or  less  exposed: 
and  in  fact  one  always  succeeds  in  passing  over 
those  slippery  steps  with  honor,  if  one  has  ever  so 
little  virtue  and  some  mental  resources.     I  do  not 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  205 

mean  that  the  step  I  was  about  to  take  did  not  come 
hard  to  me.  When  the  critical  moment  arrived,  I 
was  not  at  all  sure  that  I  had  sufficient  self-posses- 
sion to  deal  loftily  with  the  affair  as  it  was  necessary 
to  do.  Nevertheless  I  was  firmly  resolved;  and  you 
know  that,  when  I  have  once  formed  a  plan,  I  carry 
it  out. 

Well,  dear  madame,  all  my  beautiful  schemes,  all 
my  expenditure  of  courage,  all  your  expenditure  of 
foresight,  are  utterly  wasted.  Since  your  last  letter 
the  doctor  has  left  me  to  my  own  devices;  I  have 
been  out  therefore  several  times,  always  majestic- 
ally flanked  by  my  children,  so  that  their  presence, 
in  case  I  should  be  compelled  to  speak  first,  might 
serve  to  soften  the  oddity  of  that  step;  but  in  vain 
did  I  scan  every  inch  of  the  horizon  out  of  the 
corner  of  my  eye,  nothing,  absolutely  nothing, 
appeared  bearing  any  resemblance  to  a  rescuer  or  a 
lover.  What  do  you  make  of  this  new  attitude, 
madame?  I  spoke  just  now  of  riding  at  a  monster. 
Can  it  be  that  my  gentleman  proposes  to  adopt  the 
manners  of  a  monster  and  a  monster  of  the  most 
dangerous  description?  How  am  I  to  interpret  this 
absence?  Has  he,  with  marvelous  foresight  and 
sagacity,  scented  the  snare  in  which  we  expected 
to  catch  him,  and  prudently  determined  to  keep  at 
a  distance?  Is  he  even  deeper  than  that?  Can 
this  man,  in  whom  I  refused  to  discover  a  trace  of 
good  breeding,  have  carried  refinement  and  delicacy 
of  sentiment  so  far  as  to  sacrifice  his  caprice  to  the 
fear  of  marring  the  effect  of  his  noble  act? 


206  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

But,  upon  that  assumption,  we  shall  really  have 
to  reckon  with  him,  and,  my  dear  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  you  must  be  on  guard!  Do  you  know 
that  the  rivalry  of  a  man  actuated  by  such  lofty 
feelings  might  end  by  being  more  dangerous  than  it 
would  seem  to  be  at  first  glance? 

You  see,  dear  madame,  I  try  to  be  cheerful,  but  I 
believe  that,  if  the  truth  were  known,  I  sing  because 
I  am  afraid.  This  adroit  and  unexpected  retreat 
casts  me  into  endless  reflections;  those  reflections 
border  upon  other  ideas  and  other  observations 
which  I  treated  lightly  at  first,  but  of  which  I  must 
now  speak,  because  it  is  impossible  to  see  the  end 
of  this  trouble.  You  can  not  be  in  doubt  as  to  the 
nature  of  my  feeling  for  this  man.  He  saved  my 
daughter,  it  is  true,  but  only  that  I  might  be  under 
obligation  to  him.  Meanwhile  he  overturned  all  my 
most  cherished  habits:  I  am  obliged  to  let  my  poor 
children  go  out  without  me;  I  can  no  longer  go  to 
church  when  I  wish,  for  he  has  the  audacity  to 
interpose  between  God  and  myself,  even  at  the 
foot  of  the  altar;  lastly,  he  has  disturbed  the  abso- 
lute serenity  of  ideas  and  sentiments  which  has 
hitherto  been  the  joy  and  pride  of  my  life.  But, 
while  he  is  intolerable  and  hateful  to  me,  this 
persecutor  of  mine  exerts  a  sort  of  magnetism  over 
me  that  worries  me.  Before  I  see  him  I  feel  him  at 
my  side.  His  glance  weighs  upon  me  without 
meeting  my  eyes.  He  is  ugly,  but  there  is  a  sug- 
gestion of  energetic  and  powerful  individuality  in 
his  ugliness  which   makes  it  impossible  to  forget 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  20^ 

him,  and  inclines  one  to  credit  him  with  powerful 
and  vigorous  faculties.  Thus,  whatever  I  may  do, 
I  cannot  keep  him  out  of  my  mind.  Now,  it  seems 
to  me  that  I  have  rid  myself  of  his  presence  to  some 
extent.  Very  good,  and  that  means.?  I  feel  a  sort 
of  void — the  kind  of  void,  you  know,  that  the  ear  is 
conscious  of,  when  a  shrill,  penetrating  noise,  by 
which  it  has  long  been  tortured,  suddenly  ceases. 

What  I  am  about  to  add  will  seem  to  you  extremely 
childish,  but  can  one  control  these  mirages  of  the 
imagination?  I  have  often  told  you  of  my  warm 
discussions  with  Louise  de  Chaulieu  concerning  the 
way  in  which  women  should  take  life.  I  told  her 
that  the  passion  that  she  never  ceased  to  pursue 
was  unnatural  and  fatal  to  happiness.  And  she 
replied:  "You  have  never  loved,  my  dear;  love 
implies  a  phenomenon  so  rare  that  one  may  live  all 
one's  life  without  meeting  the  being  to  whom  nature 
has  given  the  power  to  make  one  happy.  In  a  day 
of  glory  there  appears  a  being  who  awakens  your 
heart  from  its  slumber  to  whom  you  will  speak  in  a 
different  key!" — See  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Wives. — 
Dear  madame,  the  words  of  those  who  are  about  to 
die  become  prophetic.  Man  Dieu!  suppose  that  that 
man  should  prove  to  be  the  dilatory  serpent  with 
whom  Louise  seemed  to  threaten  me!  That  he  can 
ever  be  a  source  of  real  danger  to  me,  that  it  is  in 
his  power  to  make  me  false  to  my  duties  is  not  what 
is  to  be  feared,  of  course,  and  I  am  conscious  of 
strength  to  resist  such  disasters.  But  I  did  not, 
like  you,  dear  madame,  marry  a  man  that  my  heart 


208  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

selected.  It  was  only  by  dint  of  patience,  deter- 
mination and  argument  that  I  succeeded  in  building 
up  the  virtuous  and  firm  attachment  that  unites  me 
to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade.  Must  I  not  therefore 
take  alarm  at  the  bare  idea  of  any  cause  of  distrac- 
tion that  threatens  to  weaken  that  sentiment,  and 
is  it  not  truly  pitiful  that  my  mind  should  be 
constantly  occupied  with  another  man,  even  though 
it  be  to  detest  him?  I  will  say  to  you,  like 
MONSIEUR,  brother  of  Louis  XIV,  who  often  carried 
to  his  wife  something  that  he  had  just  written  and 
begged  her  to  decipher  it  for  him:  examine  my 
heart  and  my  mind  for  me,  dear  madame;  dissipate 
the  mist,  calm  the  contrary  currents,  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  will,  which  this  adventure  keeps  con- 
stantly in  motion  within  me.  My  poor  Louise  was 
mistaken,  was  she  not?  and  I  am  not  a  woman  over 
whom  any  advantage  is  to  be  taken  in  the  matter 
of  love?  The  man  who,  in  a  day  of  glory,  can  hope  to 
make  me  happy  is  my  Armand,  my  Rene,  my  Nais, 
the  three  angels  for  whom  and  by  whom  I  have 
lived  hitherto,  and  there  will  never  be  any  other 
passion  for  me,  I  am  sure  of  it! 

COMTESSE    DE    L'ESTORADE   TO   MADAME   OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS 

Paris,  March,  1839. 
In  the  same  week,  in  the  year  1820,  the  college 
of  Tours  enlisted  two  new  recruits,  to  use  the  tech- 
nical language  of  my  son  Armand.     One  of  them 
had  a  beautiful  face;   the  other  might  have   been 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  2O9 

considered  ugly,  had  not  the  blooming  health,  the 
honesty  and  the  intelligence  that  shone  in  his 
face  atoned  for  the  lack  of  refinement  and  the 
irregularity  of  the  features. — You  will  stop  me  at 
this  point,  dear  madame,  and  ask  me  if  I  have  seen 
the  end  of  my  great  anxiety,  that  I  am  in  the  mood 
to  write  you  a  serial  novel?  On  the  contrary,  and 
although  it  has  not  that  appearance,  this  exordium 
that  so  surprises  you  is  simply  the  sequel  and  con- 
tinuation of  my  adventure.  Be  kind  enough  to 
give  me  your  attention  and  not  interrupt  me;  with 
that,  I  resume. — Almost  as  soon  as  they  were 
thrown  together  the  two  children  formed  a  close 
friendship;  there  was  more  than  one  excellent 
reason  for  their  intimacy.  One,  the  handsomer  of 
the  two,  was  of  a  dreamy,  contemplative  disposi- 
tion, a  little  melancholy  even;  the  other,  earnest, 
impetuous  and  always  ready  for  action.  Thus 
their  two  natures  were  complements  of  each  other: 
an  invaluable  combination  to  give  duration  to  a 
friendship.  Moreover,  both  had  the  same  taint 
upon  their  birth.  The  dreamer  was  a  natural  child, 
son  of  the  famous  Lady  Brandon;  his  name  was 
Marie-Gaston,  which  is  almost  no  name.  The 
other,  whose  father  and  mother  were  both  un- 
known, was  called  Dorlange,  which  is  no  name  at 
all.  Dorlange,  Valmon,  Volmar,  Derfeuil,  Melcourt 
— you  never  find  people  with  such  names  as  those 
except  on  the  stage,  and  there,  only  in  the  old 
repertory,  whither  they  have  gone  to  join  Arnolphe, 
Alceste,  Clitandre,  Damis,  Eraste,  Philinte  and 
14 


2IO  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Arsinoe.  Another  reason  for  the  poor  ill-born 
creatures  to  cling  closely  together,  was  the  cruel 
abandonment  of  which  they  were  both  victims. 

During  seven  mortal  years  that  they  devoted  to 
their  studies,  the  door  of  their  prison  was  not 
thrown  open  for  them  for  a  single  day,  even  in 
vacation.  At  long  intervals  Marie-Gaston  received 
a  visit  from  an  old  servant  who  had  been  employed 
by  his  mother.  His  quarterly  bills  were  paid  by 
that  woman.  Dorlange's  fees  were  paid  by  means 
of  remittances  made  with  great  regularity,  every 
three  months,  to  a  banker  at  Tours  from  an  un- 
known source.  A  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  the 
young  student's  weekly  allowance  had  been  fixed 
at  the  highest  figure  permitted  by  the  rules  of  the 
institution:  whence  the  conclusion  that  his  unknown 
kindred  must  be  well-to-do  people.  Thanks  to  that 
conclusion,  and,  above  all,  to  the  generous  use  he 
made  of  his  money,  Dorlange  had  attained  a  certain 
degree  of  consideration  among  his  companions, 
which,  by  the  way,  he  would  have  been  at  no  loss 
to  compel  by  strength  of  wrist,  if  necessary;  but 
the  remark  was  commonly  made  none  the  less,  in 
undertones,  that  no  one  had  ever  sent  for  him  to 
come  to  the  parlor,  and  that  not  a  soul  outside  the 
limits  of  the  college  had  ever  shown  the  slightest 
interest  in  him.  Those  two  children  who  were 
destined  to  be  distinguished  men  some  day,  were 
only  moderately  good  scholars.  Although  they 
were  neither  intractable  nor  lazy,  what  cared  they 
for  prizes  at  the  end  of  the  year,  having  no  mother 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  211 

to  delight  with  their  triumphs?  They  had  their 
own  way  of  studying.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  Marie- 
Gaston's  name  was  at  the  head  of  a  volume  of 
verses, — satires,  elegies,  meditations,  and  two 
tragedies.  Dorlange's  studies  impelled  him  to  rob 
wood-piles:  with  his  knife  he  carved  Hrgins, 
clowns,  schoolmasters,  saints,  grenadiers  of  the 
Old  Guard,  and,  with  greater  secrecy.  Napoleons. 
In  1827,  having  completed  their  course,  the  two 
friends  left  the  college  together  and  were  directed 
to  Paris.  A  place  had  been  previously  provided  for 
Dorlange  in  Bosio's  studio,  and  from  that  moment 
there  began  to  be  something  decidedly  eccentric  in 
the  course  of  the  occult  protection  that  hovered 
over  his  head.  When  he  alighted  at  the  house 
whose  address  had  been  handed  him  by  the  princi- 
pal of  the  college  at  the  moment  of  his  departure, 
he  was  shown  to  a  small  apartment  daintily  fur- 
nished. Under  the  clock  was  a  large  envelope 
bearing  his  name,  so  placed  as  to  catch  his  eye  at 
once.  In  that  envelope  he  found  a  note  written  in 
pencil  and  consisting  of  these  words  only: 

"On  the  day  after  reaching  Paris,  at  precisely  eight  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  be  in  the  Luxembourg  garden,  Avenue  de 
I'Observatoire,  fourth  bench  on  the  right  from  the  gate. 
This  order  must  be  obeyed;  do  not  fail." 

Dorlange  was  on  hand  promptly  at  the  appointed 
time,  as  you  can  well  believe,  and  had  not  been 
there  long  when  he  was  accosted  by  a  little  man 
not  more  than  two  feet  tall,  who,  by  reason  of  his 
enormous  head  with  its   dense   mass  of  hair,  his 


212  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

hooked  chin  and  nose  and  crooked  legs,  might  have 
been  taken  for  a  dwarf  escaped  from  one  of  Hoff- 
mann's Tales.  Without  speaking,  for,  in  addition 
to  ail  his  other  physical  advantages,  this  gallant 
messenger  was  deaf  and  dumb,  he  handed  the 
young  man  a  letter  and  a  purse.  The  letter  said 
that  Dorlange's  family  were  pleased  to  see  that  he 
had  devoted  himself  to  the  fine  arts.  He  was  urged 
to  work  courageously  and  to  profit  by  the  lessons 
of  the  great  master  with  whom  he  was  placed. 
They  hoped  that  he  would  lead  a  prudent  life;  at 
all  events  they  would  keep  an  eye  upon  his  con- 
duct. But  they  did  not  choose  that  he  should  be 
deprived  of  any  of  the  respectable  diversions  suited 
to  his  age.  For  his  necessities,  as  well  as  for  his 
pleasures,  he  could  count  upon  twenty-five  louis 
every  three  months,  which  would  be  handed  him 
at  the  same  spot  by  the  same  man.  With  regard 
to  the  messenger,  Dorlange  was  expressly  forbidden 
to  follow  him  when  he  took  his  leave,  after  his 
errand  was  done.  The  penalty  for  direct  or  indi- 
rect disregard  of  that  injunction  was  very  serious; 
it  was  nothing  less  than  the  cessation  of  all  pecu- 
niary assistance,  coupled  with  a  threat  of  absolute 
abandonment. 

Do  you  remember,  dear  madame,  that  in  183 1  I 
dragged  you  to  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  where 
the  exhibition  of  the  works  entered  in  competition 
for  the  grand  prize  in  sculpture  was  in  progress? 
The  subject  of  the  competition  appealed  to  my 
heart:   Niohe  Weeping  for  Her  Children.    Do  you 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  213 

remember  also  my  indignation  at  tiie  work  of  one 
of  the  competitors,  around  which  the  crowd  was  so 
dense  that  we  could  hardly  approach  it?  The  inso- 
lent creature!  he  had  dared  to  treat  the  subject 
satirically!  His  Niobe,  I  can  but  agree  with  you 
and  the  public,  was  touching  beyond  measure  in  her 
beauty  and  her  grief;  but  what  a  deplorable  profa- 
nation of  talent,  to  have  conceived  the  idea  of 
representing  the  children  in  the  shape  of  monkeys, 
stretched  out  on  the  ground  in  most  diverse  and 
most  grotesque  attitudes!  It  was  useless  for  you  to 
insist  that  those  little  monkeys  were  fascinatingly 
lovely  and  wittily  conceived,  and  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  satirize  more  ingeniously  the  blind 
idolatry  of  those  mothers,  who  detect  a  finished 
masterpiece  of  nature  in  a  disgusting  little  imp;  I 
insisted  none  the  less  that  it  was  an  abominable 
conception,  and  the  wrath  of  the  old  academicians, 
who  demanded  that  that  impertinent  statue  should 
be  formally  debarred  from  the  competition,  seemed 
to  me  justified  in  every  point.  Yielding  to  public 
clamor,  and  to  the  newspapers,  which  talked  of 
opening  a  subscription  to  send  the  young  artist  to 
Rome  in  case  the  prize  should  not  be  awarded  him, 
the  Academy  did  not  voice  my  feeling  in  the  matter 
nor  that  of  the  old  academicians.  The  marvelous 
beauty  of  the  Niobe  neutralized  all  the  rest,  and  at 
the  price  of  a  stern  admonition  which  the  Permanent 
Secretary  was  ordered  to  bestow  upon  him  on  the 
day  the  prizes  were  distributed,  the  slanderer  of 
mothers  saw  the   laurel  wreath   placed   upon  his 


214  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

work.  The  wretch!  but  I  forgive  him  now,  for  he 
never  knew  his  own  mother!  He  was  Dorlange, 
the  poor  outcast  of  the  college  at  Tours,  Marie- 
Gaston's  friend. 

For  four  years,  from  1827  to  1831,  when  Dorlange 
started  for  Rome,  the  friends  had  not  parted.  With 
his  allowance  of  twenty-four  hundred  francs,  always 
promptly  paid  through  the  medium  of  the  mysterious 
dwarf,  Dorlange  was  a  sort  of  Marquis  d'Aligre. 
Marie-Gaston,  on  the  other  hand,  reduced  to  his 
own  resources,  would  have  been  in  dire  straits;  but 
between  people  who  love  each  other — and  the 
species  is  more  rare  than  is  commonly  supposed — 
everything  on  one  side  and  nothing  on  the  other  is 
an  unanswerable  argument  for  combination.  Our 
two  doves  put  all  their  property  into  the  partnership, 
without  an  inventory:  lodgings,  money,  sorrows, 
pleasures,  hopes,  they  shared  everything  in  com- 
mon; the  two  lived  but  one  life,  so  to  speak. 
Unluckily  for  Marie-Gaston,  his  efforts  were  not, 
like  Dorlange's,  crowned  with  success.  His  volume 
of  verses,  carefully  recast  and  retouched,  with  many 
other  poems  produced  by  his  pen,  and  two  or  three 
plays  with  which  he  enriched  his  portfolio:  all  these, 
for  lack  of  good  will  among  publishers  and  theatrical 
managers,  remained  pitilessly  unpublished.  The 
firm,  at  Dorlange's  instance,  thereupon  took  a 
momentous  step:  it  saved  money,  and  with  its 
savings  obtained  the  amount  necessary  to  print  a 
volume.  The  title  was  fascinating:  Les  Perce-Neige 
— The  Snow-Drops — ;  the  cover  was  of  the  prettiest 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  21 5 

pearl-gray,  the  margins  were  generous,  and  there 
was  a  lovely  little  vignette  drawn  by  Dorlange. 
But  the  public  followed  the  example  of  the  pub- 
lishers and  managers;  they  would  neither  buy  nor 
read;  so  that,  on  a  certain  rent-day,  Marie-Gaston, 
in  a  fit  of  desperation,  sent  for  a  bookstall-keeper 
and  sold  him  the  whole  edition  at  three  sous  a 
volume,  whereupon  there  was  soon  a  perfect  flood 
of  Perce-Neiges  along  the  quays,  in  all  the  show- 
windows,  from  Pont  Royal  to  Pont  Marie.  That 
wound  was  still  bleeding  in  the  poet's  heart,  when 
the  question  arose  of  Dorlange's  going  to  Italy. 
Thenceforth  community  of  goods  was  impossible. 
Being  informed  through  the  mysterious  dwarf  that 
the  allowance  made  by  his  family  would  continue 
to  be  paid  at  the  banking-house  of  Torlonia  at 
Rome,  Dorlange  insisted  upon  devoting  to  Marie- 
Gaston's  needs,  during  the  five  years  of  their 
separation,  the  fifteen  hundred  francs  allotted  to 
him  as  a  pensioner  of  the  king.  But  the  warm  heart 
that  knows  how  to  receive  a  gift  is  even  more  rare 
than  the  warm  heart  that  knows  how  to  give. 
Embittered  by  his  constant  disappointments,  Marie- 
Gaston  had  not  the  courage  for  the  sacrifice  that 
was  demanded  of  him.  The  dissolution  of  the 
partnership  laid  too  bare  the  position  of  debtor  that 
he  had  hitherto  accepted.  Some  work  put  in  his 
hands  by  Daniel  d'Arthez,  our  great  writer,  added 
to  his  own  small  means,  would  be  sufficient  to  keep 
him  alive,  he  said.  So  he  peremptorily  refused 
what  his  self-esteem  led  him  to  call  charity.     That 


2l6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

ill-advised  pride  brought  about  a  shadow  of  coolness 
between  the  two  friends.  Their  intimacy  was  kept 
up,  however,  until  1833,  by  a  reasonably  active 
correspondence,  but  on  Marie-Gaston's  side  confi- 
dence and  unreserve  were  no  longer  absolute.  He 
had  something  to  conceal;  his  haughty  assertion  of 
his  ability  to  provide  for  himself  had  proved  to  be  a 
bitter  mistake.  Every  day  his  embarrassment  had 
grown  more  serious,  and,  under  the  impulsion  of 
that  detestable  adviser,  he  had  given  a  lamentable 
turn  to  his  life.  Risking  all  to  win  all,  he  had  tried 
to  put  an  end  to  the  incessant  pressure  of  need 
by  which  his  flight  seemed  to  him  to  be  paralyzed. 
Having  rashly  involved  himself  in  a  newspaper 
enterprise,  in  order  to  obtain  a  preponderating 
influence  therein,  he  had  assumed  almost  the  whole 
burden,  and  with  obligations  amounting  to  not  less 
than  thirty  thousand  francs  staring  him  in  the  face, 
he  could  see  the  debtor's  prison  opening  its  capa- 
cious maw  to  devour  him. 

It  was  just  at  that  time  that  his  meeting  with 
Louise  de  Chaulieu  took  place.  During  the  nine 
months  that  their  marriage  was  in  the  budding 
stage,  Marie-Gaston's  letters  were  less  and  less 
frequent;  nor  was  there  one  of  them  that  was  not 
stained  with  the  crime  of  l^se-friendship!  Dorlange 
should  have  been  the  first  to  know  everything,  and 
nothing  was  confided  to  him.  Her  most  high  and 
puissant  ladyship  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  Baronne  de 
Macumer,  had  demanded  that  it  should  be  so. 
When  the  time  for  the  wedding  arrived,  Madame  de 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  217 

Macumer's  passion  for  secrecy  increased  to  a  sort  of 
frenzy.  Why,  she  hardly  told  me,  her  dearest 
friend,  when  the  event  was  to  take  place,  and  no 
one  was  admitted  to  the  ceremony.  To  satisfy  the 
requirements  of  the  law,  there  must  of  course  be 
witnesses.  But  at  the  same  time  that  Marie-Gaston 
invited  two  of  his  friends  to  serve  in  that  capacity, 
he  broke  off  his  friendship  with  them,  good- 
humoredly  but  entirely.  For  any  other  than  his 
wife,  he  wrote  to  Daniel  d'Arthez,  "friendship,  hav- 
ing become  purely  an  abstract  sentiment,  will 
continue  to  exist  without  the  friend."  I  really 
think  that  Louise,  to  ensure  greater  discretion, 
would  have  had  the  witnesses  murdered  when  they 
left  the  mayor's  office,  except  that  she  still  retained 
some  slight  respect  for  the  king's  attorney.  Dor- 
lange  was  absent:  too  lucky  a  chance  to  conceal 
everything  from  him,  to  be  lost.  Had  he  entered 
the  convent  of  La  Trappe,  Marie-Gaston  could  have 
thought  no  less  of  him.  By  writing  to  common 
friends,  however,  and  making  inquiries,  the  mal- 
treated sculptor  learned  at  last  that  Marie-Gaston 
no  longer  lived  on  earth,  but  that  a  jealous  divinity 
had,  in  mythological  fashion,  borne  him  away,  like 
Tithonus,  to  a  rustic  Olympus  which  she  had  caused 
to  be  built  for  the  express  purpose  in  the  woods  at 
Ville  d'Avray. 

In  1836,  when  he  returned  from  Rome,  the 
sequestration  of  Marie-Gaston's  person  was  still  in 
effect,  stricter  and  more  inexorable  than  ever. 
Dorlange  had  too  much  self-esteem  to  make  his  way 


2l8  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

stealthily  or  by  superior  force  into  the  sanctuary 
erected  by  Louise  and  her  insane  passion;  Marie- 
Gaston  was  too  deeply  enamored  to  break  his  ban 
and  escape  from  the  gardens  of  Armida.  The  two 
friends,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  did  not  meet, 
did  not  even  exchange  a  note.  But,  at  the  news 
of  Madame  Marie-Gaston's  death,  Dorlange  forgets 
everything  and  hurries  away  to  Ville  d'Avray  to 
carry  consolation  thither.  Useless  haste:  two  hours 
after  the  sad  ceremony,  without  a  thought  for  his 
friend,  for  a  step-daughter,  or  two  nephews,  whose 
mainstay  he  was,  Marie-Gaston  had  jumped  into  a 
post-chaise  which  whirled  him  off  toward  Italy. 
Dorlange  considered  that  that  exhibition  of  the 
selfishness  of  grief  filled  the  measure  to  overflowing, 
and  he  believed  that  he  had  banished  from  his 
heart  forever  the  last  souvenir  of  a  friendship,  which 
had  not  bloomed  again  even  under  the  breath  of 
misfortune.  My  husband  and  I  had  loved  Louise 
de  Chaulieu  too  dearly  not  to  continue  to  feel 
something  of  the  same  sentiment  for  him  who  had 
been  her  whole  life  for  three  long  years.  When  he 
went  away,  Marie-Gaston  had  requested  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  to  undertake  the  care  of  all  his 
property,  and  later  he  sent  him  a  power  of  attorney 
to  that  effect.  Some  weeks  ago  his  grief,  which  is 
still  alive  and  active,  suggested  an  idea  to  him.  In 
the  centre  of  the  famous  park  of  Ville  d'Avray  there 
is  a  little  artificial  lake,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  lake 
an  islet  of  which  Louise  was  very  fond.  To  that 
island,  a  peaceful  and  secluded  spot,  Marie-Gaston 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  219 

determined  to  transfer  his  wife's  remains,  and 
from  Carrara,  whither  he  had  gone  that  he  might 
better  estimate  the  cost  of  a  marble  monument, 
he  wrote  to  us  to  tell  us  of  his  idea.  On  that 
occasion  he  remembered  Dorlange  and  requested 
my  husband  to  call  upon  him  and  ascertain  whether 
he  would  be  willing  to  undertake  the  monument. 
Dorlange  at  first  pretended  not  to  remember  Marie- 
Gaston's  name  and  declined  the  order  upon  some 
polite  pretext.  But,  pray  observe  and  admire  the 
steadfastness  of  purpose  of  those  who  love!  during 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  on  which  he  showed 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  the  door,  being  at  the 
Opera,  he  overhears  the  Due  de  Rhetore  speak 
slightingly  of  his  former  friend  and  takes  up  his 
words  with  the  utmost  eagerness.  Result,  a  duel, 
in  which  he  was  wounded,  and  of  which  you 
certainly  must  have  heard:  so  that  we  have  a  man 
putting  himself  in  the  way  to  be  killed  for  one 
whom  he  uncompromisingly  denied  that  same 
morning. 

How  this  long  narrative  is  connected  with  my 
absurd  adventure,  I  would  tell  you,  dear  madame, 
were  it  not  that  my  letter  is  already  unconscionably 
long.  And  then,  as  I  called  it  a  serial  novel,  does 
it  not  seem  that  the  moment  is  wonderfully  chosen 
to  keep  your  interest  in  suspense?  It  seems  to  me 
that  I  have  aroused  your  curiosity  with  sufficient 
skill  to  have  earned  the  right  not  to  gratify  it.  To 
be  continued,  whether  you  will  or  not,  by  the  next 
mail. 


220  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

COMTESSE   DE    L'ESTORADE   TO   MADAME    OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS 

Paris,  March,  1839. 
The    extended   biographical    digression    through 
which  I  compelled  you  to  wander,  madame,  was 
taken  in  the  main  from  a  very  recent  letter  from 
Monsieur    Marie-Gaston.     Upon    learning    of    the 
heroic  self-sacrifice  of  which  he  had  been  the  object, 
his  first  impulse  was  to  hasten  to  Paris,  to  press  the 
hand  of  the  incomparable  friend  who  had  taken 
such  a  noble  revenge  for  his  neglect.     Unluckily, 
on  the  eve  of  his  departure,  he  was  detained  by  a 
cruel  accident.    By  an  inexplicable  sort  of  sympathy, 
while  Monsieur  Dorlange  received  a  wound  in  his 
behalf  in   Paris,  he   himself  had  a  severe  fall  at 
Savarezza,  while  visiting  one  of  the  finest  quarries 
operated  in  the  vicinity  of  Carrara,  and  dislocated 
a  leg.     Being  obliged  to  postpone  his  journey,  he 
wrote  from  his  bed  of  pain  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  to 
express  his  heartfelt  gratitude  to  him;  but  a  bulky 
letter  reached   me   also   by   the   same  mail:  after 
narrating  the  whole  history  of  their  former  intimacy, 
Monsieur  Marie-Gaston  implored  me  to  see  his  old 
schoolfellow  and  to  be  his  advocate  with  him.     It 
was  not  enough  for  him  that  he  had  most  convincing 
and  notorious  proof  of  the  place  he  still  held  in 
Monsieur  Dorlange's  affection:  his  purpose  was  to 
prove  to  him  that  he  had  never  ceased  to  deserve 
that  place,  despite  all  appearances  to  the  contrary. 
It  was  a  difficult  matter  for  Monsieur  Marie-Gaston 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  221 

to  establish  that  fact,  because  he  would  never  have 
consented,  at  any  price,  to  attribute  to  their  real 
author  the  affronts  for  which  he  seemed  to  assume 
the  responsibility.  Therein,  however,  lies  the 
whole  essence  of  his  conduct  toward  Monsieur 
Dorlange.  His  wife  was  determined  to  have  him  to 
herself  alone  and  had  displayed  extraordinary 
persistence  in  isolating  him  from  all  other  affection. 
But  nothing  would  have  induced  him  to  acknowledge 
and  admit  the  species  of  moral  inferiority  disclosed 
by  that  unreasonable,  frenzied  jealousy.  Louise  de 
Chaulieu  in  his  eyes  was  perfection  itself,  and  she 
still  seemed  adorable  to  him  even  in  the  most 
extreme  developments  of  her  imagination  and  her 
temperament.  All  that  he  will  ever  concede  is  that 
the  personality  and  the  actions  of  that  beloved 
despot  can  not  be  weighed  in  the  same  balance  as 
the  personalities  and  the  actions  of  other  women. 
He  maintains  that  Louise  was  a  glorious  exception  to 
her  sex  and  that,  for  that  reason,  her  character  may 
perhaps  need  to  be  explained  in  order  to  be  under- 
stood. Now  who  could  be  better  fitted  to  undertake 
that  duty  than  I,  from  whom  she  had  no  secrets.?  I 
was  entreated  therefore  to  perform,  for  the  benefit  of 
Monsieur  Dorlange,  that  commeniator' s  task,  if  I  may 
so  describe  it:  for,  when  Madame  Marie-Gaston's  in- 
fluence should  be  once  justified  and  admitted,  her  hus- 
band's whole  behavior  would  naturally  be  condoned. 
My  first  thought  toward  carrying  out  Monsieur 
Marie-Gaston's  wish  was  to  write  a  line  to  his  friend 
the  sculptor  and  request  him  to  call  upon  me.     But 


222  THE  DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

I  reflected  that  he  had  scarcely  recovered  from  his 
wound;  and  then,  would  not  my  role  of  meditator 
assume  portentous  solemnity  in  that  prearranged 
interview  which  would  have  a  previously  determined 
end  in  view?  I  bethought  myself  of  another 
method.  People  visit  artists'  studios  every  day:  I 
might  easily  call  upon  Monsieur  Dorlange,  unan- 
nounced, accompanied  by  Naiis  and  my  husband,  on 
the  specious  pretext  of  renewing  the  pressing 
representations  that  had  already  been  made  to  him 
to  obtain  the  assistance  of  his  talent.  While  pre- 
tending to  have  come  for  the  purpose  of  exerting 
the  weight  of  my  feminine  influence  in  that  direction, 
I  should  have  no  difficulty  in  making  a  transition  to 
the  real  object  of  my  visit;  do  you  not  approve  my 
course,  dear  madame,  do  you  not  think  that  that 
was  an  excellent  way  of  arranging  matters? — And 
so,  the  day  after  I  had  formed  my  noble  resolution, 
I  arrived  with  the  escort  I  have  mentioned  at  a 
small  house  of  pleasant  exterior,  on  Rue  de  I'Ouest, 
behind  the  Luxembourg,  in  one  of  the  most  retired 
quarters  of  Paris.  Fragments  of  sculpture,  bas- 
reliefs  and  inscriptions  gracefully  carved  in  the  walls 
around  the  door  bore  witness  at  once  to  the  good 
taste  and  the  ordinary  occupation  of  the  proprietor. 
On  the  steps,  adorned  by  two  beautiful  antique  urns, 
we  were  received  by  a  woman  of  whom  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  had  already  said  a  word  to  me.  The 
laureate  of  Rome,  it  seems,  did  not  choose  to  leave 
Italy  without  bringing  with  him  some  pleasant 
memento.     A  sort  of  bourgeois  Galatea,  sometimes 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  22$ 

housekeeper,  sometimes  model,  thus  representing 
domesticity  and  art,  this  fair  Italian,  if  we  are  to 
credit  certain  indiscreet  reports,  is  called  upon  to 
typify,  in  Monsieur  Dorlange's  household,  the  most 
perfect  ideal  of  the  famous  maid-of -all-work,  con- 
stantly advertised  by  Les  Petites  /iffiches.  Let  me 
hasten  to  say,  however,  that  there  is  nothing, 
absolutely  nothing,  in  her  external  appearance  to 
suggest  a  thought  of  that  strange  accumulation  of 
functions !  A  serious  and  somewhat  coldly  courteous 
manner,  great  velvety  black  eyes,  a  slightly  sallow 
complexion,  head-dress  en  bandeaux,  which,  by 
virtue  of  the  width  and  cunning  arrangement  of 
luxuriant  braids,  gives  you  an  idea  of  a  most 
magnificent  head  of  hair;  hands  a  little  large,  but  of 
refined  shape,  and  of  a  golden  whiteness  that  stood 
out  against  the  black  background  of  her  dress;  the 
latter  simply  made,  but  fitted  so  as  to  set  off  to  the 
best  advantage  the  remarkable  beauty  of  her  figure; 
and  lastly,  hovering  over  the  whole,  an  indefinable 
touch  of  pride,  almost  of  savagery,  by  which  I  have 
always  heard  that  the  women  of  the  Transteverine 
are  recognized  at  Rome:  such  is  the  portrait  of  our 
introductress,  who  led  us  through  a  gallery  crowded 
with  objects  of  art,  through  which  you  reach  the 
studio.  While  the  fair  housekeeper  announced 
Monsieur  le  Comte  and  Madame  la  Comtesse  de 
I'Estorade,  Monsieur  Dorlange,  in  a  picturesque 
studio  costume,  with  his  back  turned  toward  us, 
hastily  drew  a  broad  green  serge  curtain  over  a 
statue  upon  which  he  was  at  work  when  we  came. 


224  THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

The  moment  that  he  turned,  and  before  I  had  time 
to  look  in  his  face,  imagine  my  amazement  when  I 
saw  Nais  rush  toward  him  and  with  childish  naivete 
almost  throw  herself  upon  his  neck,  crying: 

"Ah!  you  are  the  gentleman  who  saved  me!" 

"What!"  you  will  say,  "the  gentleman  who 
saved  her?  Why,  if  that  is  so,  Monsieur  Dorlange 
is  the  famous  stranger?" — "Yes,  madame,  and  at 
the  first  glance,  I,  as  Nais  had  done,  saw  that  it  was 
he." — "But  if  he  was  the  stranger,  he  was  also  the 
persecutor?" — "Yes,  madame;  chance,  which  is 
often  the  most  skilful  of  novelists,  decreed  that 
Monsieur  Dorlange  should  be  both  the  one  and  the 
other;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  you  must  have 
suspected  as  much  from  my  last  letter,  simply  from 
the  somewhat  prolix  way  in  which  I  sketched  his 
life." — "But  in  that  case,  you,  my  dear  countess, 
stumbling  into  his  studio  in  that  way — ?" 

Do  not  speak  of  it,  madame!  Excited,  trembling, 
turning  red  and  pale  in  turn,  I  must  for  a  moment 
have  presented  the  spectacle  of  the  most  absolute 
confusion  imaginable. 

Luckily  my  husband  embarked  upon  a  decidedly 
complicated  speech,  expressive  of  the  emotion  of  a 
happy  and  grateful  father.  Meanwhile  I  had  leisure 
to  collect  myself,  and  when  it  was  my  turn  to  take 
the  floor,  I  had  assumed  one  of  my  finest  Estorade 
expressions  as  it  pleases  you  to  call  them;  I  register 
twenty-five  degrees  below  zero  then,  you  know, 
and  could  cause  the  words  to  turn  to  ice  upon  the 
lips  of  the  most  ardent  of  lovers.     I  hoped  in  that 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  22$ 

way  to  keep  monsieur  I'artiste  at  a  distance  and  to 
interpose  an  obstacle  to  his  conceiving  the  idea  of 
taking  undue  advantage  of  my  idiotic  presence  in 
his  house.  As  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  he  seemed 
to  me  to  be  much  less  confused  than  surprised  by 
the  meeting;  and  as  if  we  were  dwelling  upon 
our  gratitude  too  long  to  suit  his  modesty,  he 
abruptly  changed  the  subject,  in  order  to  cut  us 
short. 

"Mon  Dieu,  madame,"  he  said,  "as  we  are  better 
acquainted  than  we  thought,  may  I  venture  to 
indulge  my  curiosity?" 

I  fancied  that  I  could  feel  the  claw  of  the  cat 
preparing  to  play  with  its  victim;  so  I  replied: 

"Artists,  if  I  am  rightly  informed,  are  often  very 
indiscreet  in  their  curiosity." 

And  I  emphasized  the  hint  by  a  very  marked 
harshness  of  tone  which  seemed  to  me  well  adapted 
to  complete  its  meaning.  Our  man  was  not  at  all 
disconcerted  apparently. 

"I  trust,"  he  rejoined,  "that  that  will  not  be  true 
of  my  question:  I  simply  wished  to  know  if  you  had 
a  sister?" 

"Bah!"  thought  I,  "a  subterfuge!  To  charge  the 
audacious  persistency  of  his  persecution  to  the 
account  of  a  resemblance — that's  the  game  we  are 
going  to  play." 

But,  even  though  it  had  seemed  best  to  me 
to  allow  him  that  means  of  escape,  in  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade's  presence,  I  was  not  at  liberty  to 
lie. 

15 


226  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"No,  monsieur,"  I  replied,  "I  have  no  sister; 
none  that  I  know  of,  at  least." 

I  uttered  that  reply  with  a  cunning  air,  to  show 
him  that  I  was  not  to  be  taken  for  a  dupe. 

"It  was  by  no  means  impossible,  however," 
rejoined  Dorlange  with  the  most  natural  air 
imaginable,  "that  my  supposition  should  have 
some  foundation  in  truth.  The  family  in  which  I 
met  a  person  who  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to 
you,  is  surrounded  by  a  certain  mysterious  atmos- 
phere which  justifies  any  supposition  in  regard 
to  it." 

"Would  it  be  impertinent  to  ask  you  the  name  of 
that  family.?" 

"Not  in  the  least;  they  are  people  whom  you  may 
have  known  in  Paris  in  1829  and  1830,  for  they 
lived  ifi  great  state  and  gave  very  beautiful  parties; 
I  met  them  myself  in  Italy." 

"But  their  name?"  I  asked,  with  an  insis- 
tence in  which  there  was  certainly  no  charitable 
intent. 

"The  Lanty  family,"  replied  Monsieur  Dorlange 
without  embarrassment  or  hesitation. 

In  fact,  dear  madame,  there  was  a  family  of  that 
name  in  Paris,  before  I  came  here  myself  to  live, 
and  you  must  remember,  as  well  as  I,  hearing  some 
very  strange  stories  concerning  them. 

As  he  answered  my  question  the  artist  walked 
toward  his  veiled  statue. 

"The  sister  that  you  had  not,  madame,"  he 
said  abruptly,  "I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  giving 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  227 

you,  and  I  venture  to  ask  you  to  see  if  you  can 
distinguish  some  sligiit  family  resemblance  to  your- 
self." 

As  he  spoke  he  drew  away  the  curtain  behind 
which  his  work  was  concealed,  and  behold,  madame, 
I  appeared  to  myself  in  the  guise  of  a  saint,  with  a 
halo  around  my  head.  How,  1  beg  you,  could  I  be 
angry?  In  presence  of  the  extraordinary  resem- 
blance, my  husband  and  Nais  uttered  a  cry  of 
admiration.  Monsieur  Dorlange,  undertaking  with- 
out further  delay  his  apology  for  that  dramatic 
stroke,  continued  as  follows: 

"This  statue  is  a  Saint-Ursule,  ordered  for  a 
provincial  convent.  As  the  result  of  circumstances 
which  it  would  take  me  too  long  to  detail,  the  type 
of  beauty  of  the  person  of  whom  I  spoke  to  you  a 
moment  since  was  deeply  engraved  in  my  memory. 
Vainly  did  I  try,  by  force  of  imagination,  to  create 
another  which  should  be  a  more  perfect  image  of  my 
thought.  I  had  begun  therefore  to  model  from 
memory;  but  one  day,  madame,  at  Saint-Thomas 
d'Aquin,  I  noticed  you,  and  I  was  superstitious 
enough  to  look  upon  you  as  a  copy  sent  to  me  by 
Providence.  After  that  I  worked  from  no  other 
model  than  you;  and  as  I  could  not  think  of  asking 
you  to  come  to  my  studio  to  pose,  I  multiplied  my 
chances  of  meeting  you  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 
I  carefully  avoided  ascertaining  your  name  or  any- 
thing concerning  your  social  position;  that  would 
have  been  to  materialize  you,  and  degrade  you 
from  the  ideal.     If  ill-luck   had   decreed  that  my 


228  THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

assiduity  in  putting  myself  in  your  way  should  be 
noticed  by  you,  you  would  have  taken  me  for  one 
of  the  idlers  who  haunt  the  streets  in  search  of 
adventures,  and  yet  I  was  simply  a  conscientious 
artist,  taking  his  chance  where  he  finds  it,  as 
Moli^re  says,  and  trying  to  draw  my  inspiration 
from  nature  alone,  which  always  produces  much 
more  perfect  results." 

"Oh!  1  had  noticed  that  you  were  following  us!" 
said  Nais  with  a  little  knowing  air. 

Is  it  possible  to  understand  anything  about 
children,  dear  madame?  Nais  had  seen  everything; 
at  the  time  of  her  accident  it  would  have  been 
natural  for  her  to  speak  to  her  father  or  to  me  of  the 
gentleman  whose  assiduity  had  not  escaped  her,  but 
not  a  word!  Brought  up  by  me  with  such  unremit- 
ting care  and  having  almost  never  left  me  for  a 
moment,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  doubt  her 
absolute  innocence.  I  must  needs  believe  therefore 
that  nature  alone  endows  girls,  at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
with  the  instinct  of  secretiveness;  is  it  not  a  horrible 
thought?  But  husbands,  dear  madame, — they  are 
the  ones  who  terrify  you  most  of  all,  when,  at 
times,  you  see  them  stupidly  fall  victims  to  a  sort  of 
predestination!  Mine,  one  would  say,  should  have 
pricked  up  his  ears  at  the  story  of  the  barefaced 
way  in  which  my  gentleman  had  taken  me  for  a 
model;  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  is  not  generally  con- 
sidered a  fool,  either;  he  always  exhibits  the  keenest 
sense  of  propriety,  and  I  believe  that  he  is  quite 
likely  to  show  himself  absurdly  jealous  if  I  should 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  229 

ever  give  him  the  slightest  cause  therefor;  but  to 
see  his  belle  Renee,  as  he  calls  me,  executed  in  white 
marble  in  the  guise  of  a  saint,  had  apparently  cast 
him  into  such  an  ecstasy  of  admiration  that  he  no 
longer  knew  where  he  was.  He  and  Nais  were 
engrossed  in  forming  a  careful  estimate  of  the 
fidelity  of  the  copy:  it  was  my  pose,  my  eyes,  my 
mouth,  and  even  the  two  dimples  in  my  cheeks! 
At  last  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  assume  the  r6le 
which  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  seemed  to  have 
abandoned  altogether,  and  I  said  to  the  impertinent 
artist,  with  great  gravity: 

"Do  you  not  think,  monsieur,  that  to  appropriate 
without  permission — let  us  not  mince  words,  to  steal 
— a  person's  face  in  this  way  might  well  seem  to  be 
a  very  extraordinary  proceeding?" 

"And  for  that  reason,  madame,"  he  replied 
respectfully,  "my  fraudulent  appropriation  would 
have  been  carried  only  as  far  as  you  had  permitted. 
Although  my  statue  is  destined  to  be  buried  in  the 
oratory  of  a  convent,  I  should  not  have  despatched 
it  until  I  had  obtained  your  consent  to  leave  it  in  the 
state  at  which  it  had  arrived.  I  should  have 
ascertained  your  address,  when  I  wished  to  do  so, 
and,  confessing  the  impulse  to  which  I  had  yielded, 
I  should  have  requested  you  to  come  and  inspect  my 
work.  If,  when  you  stood  in  its  presence,  a  too 
close  resemblance  had  seemed  to  displease  you,  I 
would  have  said  to  you  what  I  say  to-day:  that  with 
a  few  strokes  of  the  chisel  I  will  undertake  to  deceive 
the  most  practised  eye." 


230  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

He  actually  spoke  of  making  the  resemblance  less 
striking!  My  husband  apparently  thought  that  it 
had  not  been  made  striking  enough,  for,  turning  to 
Monsieur  Dorlange  at  that  moment: 

"Monsieur,"  he  said,  hypocritically,  "don't  you 
think  that  Madame  de  I'Estorade's  nose  is  a  shade 
more  delicate?" 

Upset  as  I  was  by  all  these  unforeseen  complica- 
tions, I  should  have  pleaded  Marie-Gaston's  cause 
but  ill;  but  at  the  very  first  words  I  said  upon  the 
subject  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  he  replied: 

"1  know,  madame,  all  that  you  can  say  to  me  in 
defense  of  my  unfaithful  friend.  1  do  not  forgive 
him,  but  I  forget.  Matters  have  so  turned  out  that 
I  came  near  being  killed  for  him,  it  would  really  be 
too  illogical  for  me  to  harbor  malice  against  him. 
Nevertheless,  so  far  as  the  monument  at  Ville- 
d'Avray  is  concerned,  nothing  will  induce  me  to 
undertake  it.  I  have  already  told  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  of  an  obstacle  which,  from  day  to  day, 
takes  shape  more  clearly;  I  consider  it  a  pitiful 
thing,  too,  for  Marie-Gaston  thus  to  devise  methods 
of  keeping  his  grief  alive,  and  I  have  written  him  to 
that  effect.  He  must  be  a  man  and  look  to  study 
and  hard  work  for  the  consolation  that  can  always 
be  expected  from  them." 

The  purpose  of  my  visit  was  accomplished  and  I 
had  no  hope,  at  present,  of  going  to  the  bottom  of  all 
these  obscure  matters,  which,  however,  I  must 
penetrate  at  some  time.  As  1  rose  to  go,  Monsieur 
Dorlange  said  to  me: 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  23 1 

"May  I  hope  that  you  will  not  require  me  to 
inflict  too  much  damage  on  my  statue?" 

"It  is  for  my  husband,  rather  than  for  me,  to 
answer  you;  but  we  will  speak  of  it  again,  for 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  hopes  that  you  will  do  us  the 
honor  of  calling." 

Monsieur  Dorlange  bowed  in  token  of  respectful 
acquiescence  and  we  went  away.  As  he  was 
escorting  us  to  our  carriage,  not  venturing  to  offer 
me  his  arm,  1  turned  to  call  Nais  who  was  going 
imprudently  near  a  Pyrenean  dog  that  lay  in  the 
courtyard.  I  thereupon  spied  the  fair  housekeeper 
behind  the  curtain  at  one  of  the  windows,  evidently 
intent  upon  watching  me.  When  she  saw  that  her 
curiosity  was  discovered,  she  drew  the  curtain  with 
noticeable  abruptness. 

"Well,  well,"  I  thought,  "so  that  girl  is  jealous 
of  me!  Can  it  be  that  she  is  afraid  that  I  shall 
become  her  rival,  as  a  model  if  in  no  other 
capacity?" 

The  result  was  that  I  went  away  in  a  villainous 
mood;  I  was  angry  with  Na'is  and  with  my  husband, 
and  I  was  on  the  point  of  making  a  scene,  of  which 
he  certainly  would  have  understood  nothing. 

What  do  you  think  of  it,  dear  madame?  Is  the 
man  one  of  the  most  adroit  knaves  that  can  be 
found,  able  to  extricate  himself  at  one  stroke  from 
an  uncomfortable  predicament,  to  invent  a  most 
ingenious  fable?  or  is  he  really  an  artist  who,  in  all 
innocence,  has  taken  me  for  the  realization  of  his 
ideal?     That   is  what  I  shall   know  within  a  few 


232  THE   DEPUTY   FROM  ARCIS 

days,  for  now,  more  than  ever,  it  is  essential  for  me 
to  follow  out  my  original  programme,  and  no  later 
than  to-morrow  Monsieur  le  Comte  and  Madame  la 
Comtesse  de  I'Estorade  will  have  the  honor  of 
inviting  Monsieur  Dorlange  to  dinner. 


COMTESSE    DE    L'ESTORADE    TO  MADAME  OCTAVE 
DE  CAMPS 

Paris,  March,  1839. 

Monsieur  Dorlange  dined  witii  us  yesterday,  dear 
madame.  My  own  idea  was  to  iiave  hiim  enfamille, 
so  that  I  might  the  better  keep  him  under  my  eye 
and  question  him  at  my  ease.  But  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  to  whom  I  could  not  make  up  my  mind 
to  confide  the  motive  of  my  charitable  design, 
pointed  out  to  me  that  an  invitation  to  dine  without 
other  guests  might  seem  insulting;  Monsieur  le 
Comte  de  I'Estorade,  peer  of  France,  would  seem 
to  consider  that  the  sculptor  Dorlange  was  not 
worthy  to  be  admitted  to  his  social  circle. 

"We  cannot,"  added  my  husband  laughingly, 
"treat  him  as  we  might  treat  the  son  of  one  of  our 
farmers  if  he  should  call  upon  us  with  the  epaulet 
of  sub-lieutenant,  entertain  him  behind  closed  doors, 
because  we  dared  not  send  him  to  the  servants' 
quarters." 

So  we  had,  with  our  principal  guest,  Joseph 
Bridau  the  painter,  the  Chevalier  d'Espard,  Mon- 
sieur and  Madame  de  la  Bastie  and  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles.  When  he  invited  the  last-named, 
my  husband  asked  him  if  it  would  be  unpleasant  for 
him  to  meet  Monsieur  de  Rhetore's  adversary.?  You 
know,  of  course,  that  the  duke  chose  for  seconds  in 
(233) 


234  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

his  duel  General  de  Montriveau  and  Monsieur  de 
Ronquerolles. 

"So  far  from  the  meeting  being  disagreeable  to 
me,"  he  replied,  "I  gladly  seize  the  opportunity  to 
become  better  acquainted  with  a  man  of  talent, 
whose  conduct,  in  the  affair  in  which  I  was  involved, 
was  beyond  praise." 

And  when  my  husband  told  him  of  our  great 
obligation  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  he  cried: 

"Why,  he's  a  hero,  is  he,  this  artist?  If  he 
keeps  on,  he  will  surpass  us  all!" 

In  his  studio,  with  his  neck  bare — so  that  his 
head,  which  is  a  little  bit  large  for  the  rest  of  his 
body,  stood  out  by  itself — and  dressed  in  a  sort  of 
oriental  costume  which  was  a  very  happy  conception 
of  his.  Monsieur  Dorlange  seemed  much  finer-looking 
than  in  his  evening  clothes.  I  must  say,  however, 
that  when  he  becomes  animated  in  conversation 
his  face  seems  to  light  up,  and  then  a  flood  of  the 
magnetic  currents  that  I  had  noticed  at  our  previous 
meetings,  pours  from  his  eyes;  Madame  de  la  Bastie, 
like  myself,  was  very  much  impressed  by  it.  I 
don't  know  whether  I  have  told  you  of  Monsieur 
Dorlange's  ambition,  and  that  he  expects  to  come 
forward  as  a  candidate  for  the  Chamber  at  the 
approaching  elections.  That  was  his  reason  for 
declining  the  commission  which  my  husband  had 
been  authorized  to  offer  him  on  behalf  of  Monsieur 
Marie-Gaston.  What  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  and 
myself  took  at  first  for  a  pretext,  or  a  visionary  plan, 
proves  to  be,  apparently,  a  serious  intention.     At 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  235 

table,  when  he  was  called  upon  by  Monsieur  Joseph 
Bridau  to  tell  us  how  much  credence  should  be 
placed  in  the  reality  of  his  parliamentary  projects, 
Monsieur  Dorlange  formally  corroborated  them. 
The  result  was  that  the  conversation  had  an 
extremely  political  flavor  from  that  time  till  dinner 
was  at  an  end.  I  expected  to  find  our  artist  very 
imperfectly  acquainted  at  least,  if  not  absolutely 
unfamiliar  with  questions  so  entirely  foreign  to  his 
previous  studies.  But  no:  concerning  men  and 
things,  concerning  the  past  as  well  as  the  future  of 
parties,  he  expressed  some  genuinely  novel  views, 
in  which  there  evidently  was  no  borrowing  from  the 
phraseology  of  the  daily  newspapers;  and  it  was  all 
said  earnestly,  and  in  such  fluent,  refined  language; 
so  that,  after  his  departure.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
and  Monsieur  de  Ronquerolles  expressed  themselves 
as  thoroughly  surprised  at  the  eminent  and  powerful 
political  talent  that  had  just  been  revealed  to  them. 
That  admission  is  the  more  remarkable  because  those 
gentlemen,  by  temperament  as  well  as  from  their 
position,  are  zealous  conservatives,  whereas  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange's  inclinations  lead  him  in  a  marked 
degree  toward  democratic  ideas.  So  far  as  con- 
cerned this  unexpected  mental  superiority  exhibited 
by  my  problematical  lover,  1  began  to  be  somewhat 
reassured.  Politics  is,  in  truth,  an  absorbing,  over- 
bearing passion  which  does  not  readily  allow  another 
passion  to  flourish  by  its  side.  Nevertheless,  I  had 
decided  to  probe  our  situation  to  the  bottom,  and, 
after  dinner,  I  insidiously  inveigled  our  man  into  one 


236  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

of  those  tete-a-tetes  which  a  hostess  always  finds  it 
so  easy  to  arrange.  After  talking  a  little  while  of 
Monsieur  Marie-Gaston,  our  common  friend,  and  of 
my  poor  Louise's  paroxysms  of  passion  and  my 
fruitless  efforts  to  moderate  them,  not  hesitating  to 
place  him  upon  a  footing  where  he  would  have  every 
facility  for  beginning  the  attack,  I  asked  him  if  the 
Saini  Ursule  would  soon  be  despatched. 

"Everything  is  ready  for  its  departure,"  he 
replied;  "but  I  require  your  exeat,  madame,  and 
that  you  should  kindly  tell  me  whether  I  am  to 
change  the  expression  in  any  way  or  not." 

"One  question  first,"  I  rejoined.  "Assuming 
that  I  should  desire  any  change  made  in  your  work, 
would  it  lose  much  by  being  thus  made  over?" 

"Probably:  however  little  you  may  clip  the  bird's 
wings,  his  flight  is  always  impeded." 

"Another  question!  Is  it  myself  or  the  other 
person  whom  your  statue  reproduces  most  faith- 
fully?" 

"You,  madame,  that  goes  without  saying:  you  are 
the  present  and  she  is  the  past." 

"But  to  desert  the  past  for  the  present,  monsieur, 
is  a  proceeding  to  which  a  very  severe  name  is 
applied,  do  you  know  it?  and  yet  you  acknowledge 
that  evil  impulse  with  an  artlessness  and  indifference 
in  which  there  is  something  ghastly." 

"True,"  replied  Monsieur  Dorlange,  with  a  laugh, 
"art  is  barbarous:  wherever  it  spies  the  subject- 
matter  of  its  creations,  it  pounces  upon  it  with 
desperate  fury." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  237 

"Art,"  I  rejoined,  "is  a  great  word  behind  which 
a  multitude  of  things  may  be  concealed!  The  other 
day  you  told  me  that  circumstances  which  it  would 
take  too  long  to  detail  had  contributed  to  keep 
always  before  you  the  form  of  which  I  am  a  reflec- 
tion and  which  has  left  such  an  ineffaceable  mark 
in  your  memory:  was  not  that  equivalent  to  telling 
me  in  so  many  words  that,  in  your  case,  it  was  not 
the  sculptor  only  who  remembered?" 

"Really,  madame,  I  had  not  the  time  to  explain 
my  meaning  more  satisfactorily;  but,  in  any  case, 
as  I  then  had  the  honor  to  see  you  for  the  first  time, 
would  you  not  have  considered  it  a  most  extraordi- 
nary performance  on  my  part  to  presume  to  confide 
in  you?" 

"But  to-day?"  I  replied  boldly. 

"To-day,  in  the  absence  of  explicit  encourage- 
ment, I  should  still  have  some  difficulty  in  persuading 
myself  that  any  part  of  my  past  history  can  have 
deep  interest  for  you." 

"Why  so?  There  are  acquaintances  which  ripen 
quickly.  Your  devotion  to  my  Nais  was  a  long  step 
forward  in  ours.  Besides,"  I  added,  with  assumed 
frivolity,  "I  am  passionately  fond  of  histories." 

"Not  only  has  mine  the  disadvantage  of  lacking 
a  denouement,  but  it  is  still  an  enigma  to  me." 

"An  additional  reason  for  telling  it  to  me:  perhaps 
between  us  we  shall  find  the  key." 

Monsieur  Dorlange  seemed  to  reflect  a  moment; 
then,  after  a  brief  silence,  he  said: 

"It  is  true  that  women  have  a  wonderful  faculty 


238  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

of  grasping  subtle  distinctions  in  acts  and  feelings, 
of  which  we  men  can  make  nothing.  But  this 
confidence  does  not  concern  myself  alone,  and  I 
must  hope  that  it  will  remain  strictly  between  our- 
selves; I  do  not  even  except  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
from  this  stipulation;  a  secret  is  endangered  as  soon 
as  it  has  passed  beyond  the  person  who  reveals  it 
and  the  person  who  listens." 

I  confess  that  my  curiosity  as  to  what  was  to 
follow  was  immeasurable;  did  not  that  last  sentence 
indicate  the  preparations  of  a  man  who  was  making 
ready  to  hunt  upon  another's  territory?  Neverthe- 
less, continuing  my  system  of  shameless  encourage- 
ment, I  replied: 

"Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  is  so  little  accustomed  to 
share  all  my  secrets,  that  he  has  never  seen  a  line 
of  my  correspondence  with  Madame  Marie-Gaston." 

All  of  which  did  not  prevent  my  making  a  mental 
reservation  of  the  right  to  maintain  only  a  relative 
secrecy  with  you,  dear  madame;  for  are  you  not 
my  director.?  and  one  must  tell  one's  director 
everything  if  one  desires  to  receive  pertinent  advice. 

Thus  far  Monsieur  Dorlange  had  remained  stand- 
ing in  front  of  the  hearth,  at  the  corner  of  which  I 
was  sitting;  at  that  point  he  took  an  easy-chair 
beside  me,  and  began,  by  way  of  preamble: 

"I  have  mentioned  the  Lanty  family  to  you, 
madame — " 

At  that  moment,  as  inopportune  as  a  shower 
during  a  pleasure-party  in  the  country,  Madame  de 
la  Bastie  approached  and  asked  me  if  I  had  seen 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  239 

Nathan's  last  play.  As  If  I  cared  for  other  people's 
dramas  in  presence  of  the  one  in  which,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  I  had  played  a  reasonably  sprightly 
r61e!  Monsieur  Dorlange  had  no  choice,  however, 
but  to  give  up  the  seat  he  occupied  by  my  side,  and 
it  was  impossible  to  renew  our  t^te-a-t^te  during 
the  evening.  As  you  can  see,  dear  madame,  all 
my  enticements  and  all  my  scheming  resulted  in  no 
information;  but,  in  default  of  words  from  Monsieur 
Dorlange,  when  I  recall  his  whole  attitude,  which  I 
studied  most  carefully,  really  my  mind  inclines 
most  strongly  toward  the  theory  of  his  perfect 
innocence.  Indeed  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that 
love  plays  the  role  I  had  suspected  in  that  inter- 
rupted story.  There  are  a  thousand  other  ways  of 
establishing  people  firmly  in  one's  memory,  and,  if 
Monsieur  Dorlange  did  not  really  love  her  of  whom 
I  remind  him,  why  should  he  bear  a  grudge  against 
me,  who  only  play  second  fiddle  in  the  affair?  Let 
us  not  be  too  forgetful,  either,  of  his  fair  house- 
keeper, and  even  assuming  that  in  that  matter  the 
senses  are  more  concerned  than  the  heart,  must  we 
not  admit  that  that  girl  ought,  to  a  certain  extent  at 
least,  to  act  as  a  sort  of  safety-rail  for  me?  In  that 
view,  dear  madame,  I  should  be  more  than  ridiculous 
with  kll  my  terrors,  which  I  have  been  dinning  into 
your  ears,  and  I  should  be  not  unlike  Belise  in  Les 
Femmes  Savantes,  wedded  to  the  idea  that  every 
man  who  sees  her  falls  dead  in  love  with  her. — I 
would  however  welcome  with  all  my  heart  that 
insipid  denouement.   Lover  or  no.  Monsieur  Dorlange 


240  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

is  a  man  of  exalted  character  and  of  rare  distinction 
of  mind,  and  if  lie  siiould  not  make  iiimself  altogether 
impossible  by  misplaced  presumption,  it  would 
assuredly  be  a  pleasure  and  an  honor  to  number 
him  among  one's  friends.  Moreover,  the  service  he 
rendered  us  predestines  him  to  that  role,  and  I 
should  regret  extremely  having  to  treat  him  harshly. 
In  that  case  1  should  have  a  falling  out  with  Nais, 
who,  naturally  enough,  dotes  upon  her  rescuer. 

Last  evening,  after  he  had  gone,  she  said  to  me 
with  a  most  amusing  little  air  of  approbation: 

"Mamma,  how  well  Monsieur  Dorlange  speaks!" 

Speaking  of  Nais,  this  is  the  explanation  she  gave 
me  of  the  reticence  by  which  I  was  so  puzzled. 

"Why,  mamma,  I  thought  you  noticed  it  too. 
But  after  he  stopped  the  horses,  as  you  didn't  act  as 
if  you  knew  him,  and  as  he  hasn't  a  very  distingue 
face,  I  supposed  he  was  only  a  man." 

"What!  a  man?" 

"Why,  yes!  one  of  the  people  we  don't  take  any 
notice  of.  But  how  happy  I  was  when  1  found  out 
he  was  a  gentleman!  You  heard  me,  how  I  cried: 
*Ah!  youWe  the  gentleman  who  saved  me!*  " 

If  she  is  entirely  artless,  there  is  a  deplorable 
suggestion  of  vanity  in  this  explanation,  upon 
which,  as  you  may  imagine,  I  delivered  a  highly 
moral  lecture.  That  distinction  between  a  man  and 
a  gentleman  is  shocking;  but,  after  all,  is  not  the 
child  in  the  right?  Only  she  says  with  unvarnished 
ingenuousness  what  our  democratic  moral  code  per- 
mits us  to  practise,  to  be  sure,  but  does  not  permit 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  24 1 

US  to  acknowledge  aloud.  The  Revolution  of  '89 
served  to  establish  that  virtuous  hypocrisy  in  our 
society,  if  it  did  nothing  else.  But  I  too  am  verging 
upon  politics,  and  if  1  should  carry  my  ideas  much 
farther  you  would  tell  me  to  beware,  and  say  that 
Monsieur  Dorlange  has  already  begun  to  cast  a  spell 
upon  me. 

COMTESSE  DE    L'ESTORADE   TO    MADAME  OCTAVE 
DE  CAMPS. 

Paris,  April,  1839. 

For  nearly  two  weeks,  dear  madame,  we  heard 
nothing  of  Monsieur  Dorlange.  Not  only  did  he  not 
think  fit  to  come  and  resume  the  confidential  com- 
munication so  inopportunely  interrupted  by  Madame 
de  la  Bastie,  but  he  seemed  to  forget  entirely  that 
after  dining  with  people  one  ought,  at  least,  to  leave 
a  card  on  them  within  a  week.  We  were  at 
breakfast  yesterday  morning  and  I  had  just  made 
that  remark,  not  ill-humoredly,  when  our  Lucas, 
who  sometimes  presumes  upon  his  length  of  service 
to  indulge  in  rather  unseemly  familiarity,  triumph- 
antly opened  the  dining-room  door,  and  while  he 
handed  a  note  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  with  one 
hand,  with  the  other  he  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
table  an  object  of  some  sort,  carefully  swathed  in 
silk  paper,  which  I  at  first  took  for  a  piece  of  plate, 
mounted. 

"What  is  that?"   I   said  to   Lucas,  upon  whose 
face  I  could  read  that  he  had  a  surprise  in  store. 
16 


242  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

I  put  out  my  hand  to  uncover  the  strange  object. 

"Oh!  madame,  take  care!"  cried  Lucas,  "it's 
fragile." 

Meanwhile  my  husband  had  read  the  note,  which 
he  handed  me,  saying: 

"Here  is  Monsieur  Dorlange's  apology!" 

This  is  what  Monsieur  I'artiste  wrote: 

"Monsieur  le  Comte, 

"I  thought  that  I  could  see  that  Madame  de  I'Estorade 
authorized  me,  only  with  reluctance,  to  profit  by  the  audacious 
theft  committed  by  me  to  her  prejudice.  1  therefore  bravely 
resolved  to  modify  ray  work  in  that  view,  and,  at  the  present 
moment,  the  two  sisters  bear  almost  no  resemblance  to  each 
other.  I  did  not  wish,  however,  that  the  whole  should  be 
lost  to  everybody,  and  so,  having  caused  a  casting  to  be 
made  of  Saint  Ursule's  head,  before  making  the  changes,  1 
made  a  copy,  reduced  in  size,  which  1  have  placed  upon  the 
shoulders  of  a  charming  countess  not  yet  canonized,  thank 
God!  The  mould  was  broken  immediately  after  the  casting 
of  the  only  copy,  which  1  have  the  honor  of  sending  to  you. 
This  procedure,  which  was  certainly  all  that  propriety 
demanded,  will  perhaps  give  a  little  more  value  to  the  object. 

"Deign  to  accept.  Monsieur  le  Comte,"  etc. 

While  I  was  reading  the  note,  my  husband,  Lucas, 
Rene  and  Nais  had  vied  with  one  another  in  their 
eagerness  to  extricate  me  from  my  outer  covering, 
and  behold,  I  was  transformed  from  the  saint  I  had 
been  into  a  woman  of  the  world,  in  the  shape  of  a 
fascinating  statuette,  dressed  most  bewitchingly. 
I  thought  that  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  Nai's  and 
Rene  would  go  mad  with  delight  and  admiration. 
The  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  chef-d'oeuvre  being 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  243 

soon  circulated  through  the  house,  all  our  servants, 
whom  if  the  truth  were  known  we  are  inclined  to 
spoil,  appeared  one  after  another,  as  if  they  had 
been  invited,  and  all  cried  out:  "Ah!  how  lovely 
madame  is!"  I  give  you  the  substance  of  what  they 
said,  without  attempting  to  recall  the  more  or  less 
absurd  variations  on  that  theme.  I  alone  did  not 
share  the  universal  excitement.  To  serve  to  all 
eternity  as  material  for  Monsieur  Dorlange's 
sculptural  lucubrations  seemed  to  me  only  a  moder- 
ately enviable  privilege,  and  for  the  reasons  that 
you  know,  dear  madame,  I  should  have  preferred 
not  to  be  so  often  in  his  thoughts  and  under  his  chisel. 
As  for  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  after  spending  an 
hour  deciding  in  what  part  of  his  study  the  artist's 
masterpiece  would  be  in  the  best  light,  he  came  to 
me  and  said: 

"On  my  way  to  the  Cour  des  Comptes,  I  shall 
drop  in  and  see  Monsieur  Dorlange;  if  he  is  at 
liberty  to-night,  I  shall  ask  him  to  dine  with  us; 
Armand,  whom  he  doesn't  yet  know,  will  be  at 
home  to-day,  so  that  he  will  see  the  whole  family 
together,  and  you  can  thank  him." 

I  did  not  approve  of  the  idea  of  that  invitation  to 
a  family  party.  It  seemed  to  me  that  it  would 
place  Monsieur  Dorlange  on  a  footing  of  intimacy 
which,  in  view  of  his  latest  attention,  began  to 
seem  dangerous  to  me.  But  to  such  remonstrances 
as  I  made  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  replied: 

"But,  my  dear,  the  first  time  we  received  him, 
you  wanted  it  to  be  a  family  affair,  which  would 


244  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

have  been  extremely  rude;  and  to-day,  when  it  is 
perfectly  proper,  you  raise  objections  to  it!" 

To  such  a  conclusive  argument  as  that,  which 
surprised  me  in  the  very  act  of  self-contradiction,  I 
had  not  a  word  to  say,  except,  mentally,  that 
husbands  certainly  have  not  a  delicate  hand. 
Monsieur  Dorlange  consented  to  join  us.  He  must 
have  found  me  rather  lukewarm  in  my  expressions 
of  gratitude.  I  went  so  far  as  to  say  to  him  that  he 
had  misinterpreted  my  thoughts  and  that  I  would 
not  have  asked  him  to  change  his  statue,  the  result 
of  which  was  to  make  him  regret  his  action  and  to 
imply  that  1  did  not  greatly  approve  his  gift  of  the 
morning.  He  was  clever  enough  too  to  displease 
me  in  another  matter,  in  regard  to  which,  as  you 
know,  I  am  not  very  tractable.  At  dinner  Mon- 
sieur de  I'Estorade  returned  to  the  subject  of  his 
candidacy  of  which  he  expressed  less  approval 
than  ever,  although  he  no  longer  considered  it 
absurd. 

That  led  us  straight  to  politics.  Armand,  who  is 
of  a  serious,  reflective  turn  and  reads  the  newspapers, 
took  part  in  the  conversation.  Contrary  to  the 
habit  of  young  men  of  the  present  day,  he  agrees 
with  his  father,  that  is  to  say  he  is  a  very  strong 
conservative,  but  perhaps  he  sometimes  departs 
from  that  wise  and  judicious  moderation  which  it 
is  so  hard  to  observe  at  fifteen.  He  was  tempted 
therefore  to  contradict  Monsieur  Dorlange,  whose 
tendency  to  jacobinism  I  have  already  mentioned 
to  you.     And,  really,  it  did  not  seem  to  me  that  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  245 

little  man's  arguments  were  very  bad  or  very  badly 
expressed. 

Without  ceasing  to  be  courteous,  Monsieur 
Dorlange  seemed  to  scorn  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
with  the  poor  child,  and  reminded  him  rather  harshly 
of  his  schoolboy's  jacket,  so  that  I  saw  that  Armand 
was  on  the  point  of  losing  patience  and  speaking 
sharply.  As  he  has  been  well  brought  up  I  had 
only  to  make  him  a  sign  and  he  restrained  himself; 
but  when  I  saw  him  turn  almost  purple  and  take 
refuge  in  absolute  silence,  I  felt  that  his  self-esteem 
had  received  a  deep  wound,  and  I  considered  it  far 
from  generous  in  Monsieur  Dorlange  to  have  crushed 
him  thus  with  his  superiority.  I  know  very  well 
that  the  children  of  to-day  make  the  mistake  of 
trying  to  assume  too  much  importance,  and  that  it 
does  no  harm  now  and  then  to  interfere  to  prevent 
their  being  forty  years  old  so  soon.  But  really 
Armand's  intellectual  development  and  common- 
sense  are  beyond  his  years.  Would  you  like  a 
proof  of  it?  Until  last  year  I  had  not  been  willing 
to  consent  to  part  from  him,  and  he  attended  the 
courses  of  study  at  College  Henri  IV.  as  a  day- 
scholar.  Well,  he  himself  asked  to  be  entered  as  a 
regular  boarder  at  the  college,  in  the  interest  of  his 
studies,  which  suffered  more  or  less  from  the  going 
and  coming  necessitated  by  the  other  arrangement, 
and  he  expended  more  arguments  and  devised  more 
schemes  to  obtain  the  favor  of  shutting  himself  up 
under  the  ferule  of  a  schoolmaster,  than  an  ordinary 
child  would  have  employed  to  achieve  the  contrary 


246  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

result.  So  it  is  that  that  assumption  of  manliness, 
which  in  many  schoolboys  is  intolerably  absurd, 
seems  in  him  to  be  the  result  of  natural  precocity 
simply;  and  that  precocity  we  certainly  must  forgive, 
as  it  comes  to  him  from  God.  Thanks  to  the 
misfortune  of  his  birth,  Monsieur  Dorlange  is  less 
likely  than  another  to  know  what  children  are,  and 
he  must  necessarily  be  lacking  in  indulgence  to 
them.  But  let  him  beware!  that  is  a  wretched  way 
of  paying  court  to  me,  even  on  the  footing  of  the 
simplest  friendship. 

It  was  not  easy  for  me  in  a  family  party  to  lead 
him  back  to  the  subject  of  his  past  history,  nor  did 
it  seem  to  me  that  he  himself  was  very  eager  to 
recur  to  it.  He  paid  much  less  attention  to  me  in 
fact  than  to  Nais,  for  whom  he  cut  out  silhouettes 
for  more  than  an  hour.  I  must  not  forget  to  say 
that  Madame  de  Rastignac  arrived  inopportunely, 
and  that  I  had  to  devote  myself  entirely  to  her. 
While  I  was  talking  with  her  in  front  of  the  fire,  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  had  Nais  and  Rene  posing  for  him, 
and  they  triumphantly  brought  me  their  profiles,  won- 
derfully like,  executed  in  a  few  turns  of  the  scissors. 

"Just  think!"  said  Nais  in  an  undertone,  "Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  wants  to  make  a  bust  of  me  in 
marble!" 

All  that  seemed  to  me  in  wretched  taste.  I  don't 
like  to  have  artists,  when  they  are  admitted  to  a 
salon,  act  as  if  they  continued  to  practise  their 
profession  there.  They  seem  in  that  way  to  justify 
the  aristocratic  pride  which  frequently  looks  upon 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  247 

them  as  not  worthy  to  be  received  for  their  own 
sakes.  Monsieur  Doriange  left  us  early,  and 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  jarred  upon  my  nerves,  as 
he  has  done  many  times  in  his  life,  when,  as  he 
walked  to  the  door  with  our  guest  who  tried  to 
escape  unnoticed,  I  heard  him  say  that  he  must 
come  more  frequently  and  that  I  passed  almost  all 
my  evenings  at  home.  That  famous  invitation 
kindled  civil  war  among  my  children:  Nais  lauds 
her  dear  rescuer  to  the  skies,  being  supported  in 
her  opinion  by  Rene,  who  has  gone  over,  body  and 
soul,  to  Monsieur  Doriange,  in  consideration  of  a 
superb  mounted  lancer  that  he  has  cut  out  for  him. 
Armand  on  the  other  hand  says  that  he  is  ugly, 
which  is  incontestable:  he  declares  that  he  resembles 
portraits  of  Danton  that  he  has  seen  in  illustrated 
histories  of  the  Revolution,  and  there  is  some  truth 
in  what  he  says.  He  says  also  that  in  my  statuette 
he  has  given  me  the  manner  of  a  grisette,  which  is 
not  in  the  least  true.  Hence,  never-ending  disputes 
between  the  darling  loves.  Just  now  I  was  obliged 
to  intervene,  telling  them  that  they  tired  me  with 
their  Monsieur  Doriange.  Do  you  not  say  the  same 
of  me,  dear  madame,  who  have  already  written  you 
so  much  in  regard  to  him,  without  being  able  to 
give  you  any  precise  information? 

DORLANGE  TO  MARIE-GASTON. 

Paris,  April,  1839. 
Why  do  I  desert  my  art,  and  what  do  I  expect  to 
do  in  that  accursed  political  galley.?     That  is  what 


248  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

comes  of  shutting  one's  self  up  for  years  in  conjugal 
convents,  my  dear  lover!  The  world  has  progressed 
meanwhile.  For  those  who  have  been  forgotten  at 
the  gate,  life  has  brought  about  new  combinations, 
and  the  less  we  know  about  them,  the  more  inclined 
we  are  to  throw  the  blame  on  what  we  do  not  know. 
A  man  is  always  such  an  excellent  doctor  for 
another's  ills!  Know  then,  my  dear  inquisitive 
friend,  that  the  resolution  for  which  you  call  me  to 
account  did  not  originate  with  me.  In  presenting 
myself  so  unexpectedly  in  the  electoral  breach,  I 
simply  bow  to  an  inspiration  from  those  in  high 
places.  Allowing  a  gleam  of  light  to  find  its  way 
into  the  depths  of  my  everlasting  darkness,  a  father 
has  three-fourths  revealed  himself  to  me,  and,  if  I 
can  trust  appearances,  his  position  in  society  is 
calculated  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting  self-esteem. 
However,  in  accordance  with  the  usual  course  of 
my  life,  that  revelation  is  surrounded  by  circum- 
stances so  extraordinary  and  so  romantic  as  to 
deserve  to  be  narrated  in  some  detail.  As  you  have 
been  living  in  Italy  two  years,  visiting  the  most 
interesting  cities,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be 
entirely  useless  to  explain  to  you  what  the  famous 
Caf^  Greco  is,  the  ordinary  resort  of  pupils  of  the 
Academy  and  artists  of  all  countries  during  their 
stay  in  Rome. 

In  Paris,  on  Rue  du  Coq-Saint-Horore,  there  exists 
a  far-off  likeness  of  that  institution  in  a  cafe  known 
for  very  many  years  under  the  name  of  Cafi  des 
Arts.    Two  or  three  times  a  week  I  go  there  to  pass 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  249 

the  evening.  There  I  meet  several  young  men, 
who  were  students  at  Rome  in  my  time.  They 
have  introduced  me  to  several  journalists  and  men 
of  letters,  agreeable  and  distinguished  men  all,  with 
whom  it  is  both  profitable  and  pleasant  to  exchange 
ideas.  In  a  certain  corner  where  we  assemble,  all 
the  questions  which  are  calculated  to  interest  serious 
minds  are  agitated  and  discussed;  but  politics,  being 
of  more  living  interest,  is  especially  privileged  to 
impart  warmth  to  our  discussions.  In  our  little  club 
the  prevailing  tendency  is  toward  democratic  opin- 
ions: they  are  represented  in  their  most  diverse 
developments,  the  phalansterian  Utopia  included. 
That  is  enough  to  tell  you  that|the  course  of  the 
government  is  often  criticised  with  severity,  and 
that  in  our  judgments  the  most  absolute  freedom  of 
speech  holds  sway.  It  was  a  little  more  than  a  year 
ago  that  the  only  waiter  who  is  allowed  the  honor 
of  waiting  upon  us  took  me  aside  one  day,  having, 
as  he  said,  some  important  information  for  me. 

"You  are  being  watched  by  the  police,  monsieur," 
he  said,  "and  you  will  do  well  not  to  talk  always 
as  Saint-Paul  did,  with  your  mouth  open." 

"The  police,  my  good  friend!  why,  what  the 
devil  is  there  for  them  to  watch,?  All  that  I  say 
and  much  more  is  printed  every  morning  in  the 
newspapers." 

"They're  watching  you  all  the  same.  I  have 
noticed  it;  there's  a  little  old  man  who  takes  a  great 
deal  of  snuff  and  always  sits  within  earshot  of  you; 
when  you  speak,  he  seems  to  listen  much  more 


250  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

carefully  than  he  does  to  the  others,  and  once  1  even 
saw  him  write  something  in  his  note-book  in  marks 
that  were  not  writing." 

"Very  good!  the  first  time  he  comes,  you  point 
him  out  to  me." 

The  first  time  was  no  later  than  the  next  day. 
The  personage  who  was  pointed  out  to  me  was  a 
little  man  with  gray  hair,  of  decidedly  shabby 
exterior,  whose  face,  which  was  deeply  marked 
with  the  small-pox,  seemed  to  me  to  denote  a  man 
of  fifty.  He  did  in  fact  resort  very  frequently  to  a 
large  snuff-box  and  seemed  to  honor  all  my  remarks 
with  a  close  attention  which  I  might  consider  very 
complimentary  or  very  impertinent  as  I  chose.  But 
there  was  in  the  whole  personality  of  the  alleged 
police-spy  an  air  of  mildness  and  probity  which 
seemed  to  advise  me  to  adopt  the  more  indulgent  of 
those  two  interpretations.  When  I  remarked  upon 
that  reassuring  circumstance  to  the  man  who 
flattered  himself  that  he  had  scented  a  secret 
agent: 

"Parbleu!"  said  he,  "they  put  on  those  soft  airs 
in  order  to  disguise  their  game  better." 

Two  days  later,  on  a  Sunday,  as  1  was  taking  one 
of  those  walks  through  old  Paris  which  you  will 
remember  that  I  have  always  liked  and  been 
addicted  to,  chance  led  me,  at  the  hour  for  vespers, 
to  the  church  of  Saint-Louis  en  I'lle,  the  parish 
church  of  the  out-of-the-way  quarter  that  bears  that 
name.  That  church  is  a  monument  of  no  great 
interest,  whatever  certain  historians  may  say  and 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  25 1 

all  the  Foreigners'  Guides  to  Paris  after  them.  I 
should  therefore  have  done  nothing  more  than  pass 
hurriedly  through,  had  not  the  remarkable  talent  of 
the  organist  who  officiated  at  the  service  detained 
me  irresistibly.  To  tell  you  that  that  man's  playing 
realized  my  ideal  is  to  bestow  great  praise  upon 
him;  for  you  remember  doubtless  my  subtle  distinc- 
tion between  players  on  the  organ  and  organists,  the 
latter  a  superior  order  of  nobility,  to  whom  I  do  not 
grant  letters-patent  except  for  good  cause.  The 
service  at  an  end,  I  was  curious  to  see  the  face  of  so 
eminent  an  artist,  banished  to  such  a  spot.  I  went 
therefore  and  stationed  myself  in  ambush  at  the 
door  of  the  organ-loft,  in  order  to  see  the  virtuoso 
when  he  went  out.  I  would  have  done  no  more  for 
a  crowned  head;  but,  after  all,  are  not  great  artists 
the  real  kings  by  divine  right?  Imagine  my  amaze- 
ment when,  after  waiting  a  few  moments,  I  saw, 
instead  of  an  entirely  strange  face,  a  man  who  at 
first  awakened  a  vague  remembrance  in  my  mind, 
and  in  whom  at  the  second  glance  I  recognized  my 
persistent  auditor  of  the  Cafe  des  Arts.  Nor  was 
that  all;  behind  him  walked  an  almost  human 
creature,  and  in  that  shapeless  mass,  with  its 
twisted  legs  and  its  dense,  unkempt  hair,  I  detected 
our  former  quarterly  providence,  my  banker,  or 
money -bringer, — in  a  word,  our  estimable  friend,  the 
mysterious  dwarf.  Nor  did  1  escape  his  keen  eye, 
and  I  saw  him,  with  an  earnest  gesture,  point  me 
out  to  the  organist.  The  latter,  with  a  hasty  move- 
ment, whose  whole  significance  evidently  did  not 


252  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

occur  to  him,  turned  abruptly  and  looked  at  me, 
but  went  his  way  without  any  further  demonstration. 
Meanwhile  the  deformed  man,  whom  by  that  circum- 
stance I  readily  recognized  as  an  employe  of  the 
house,  approached  the  dispenser  of  holy  water  and 
offered  him  a  pinch  of  snuff;  then,  without  honoring 
me  farther  with  his  attention,  he  limped  to  a  con- 
cealed door  which  opened  into  the  lower  regions  of 
the  church,  and  disappeared.  The  pains  that  the 
man  had  taken  to  call  the  organist's  attention  to 
my  presence  was  a  revelation  to  me.  Evidently 
the  musician  was  familiar  with  the  curious  method 
employed  to  hand  me  my  allowance,  which  had 
continued  to  be  religiously  served  out  to  me  on  my 
return  from  Rome,  and  until  the  time  when  I  was 
placed  above  want  by  a  number  of  orders.  Some- 
thing no  less  probable  was  that  the  man  who  was  in 
the  secret  of  that  financial  mystery  was  the 
depositary  of  many  other  secrets;  I  was  the  more 
eager  to  obtain  an  explanation  from  him,  because, 
having  reached  the  point  where  I  was  able  to  live  on 
my  own  resources,  I  no  longer  had  reason  to  dread 
that  my  curiosity  would  be  punished  by  the  with- 
drawal of  the  subsidy,  with  which  I  had  been 
threatened  at  another  time.  Forming  a  resolution 
at  once,  therefore,  I  darted  after  the  organist;  when 
I  passed  out  of  the  church  door  he  was  already  out 
of  sight;  but,  being  seconded  by  chance,  which  led 
me  in  the  direction  he  had  taken,  I  had  the  good 
fortune  to  see  him  knocking  at  the  door  of  a  house 
some  distance  away,  as  I  came  out  upon  Quai  de 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  253 

Bethune.  Boldly  entering  the  house  after  him,  I 
said  to  the  concierge: 

"Monsieur  I'organiste  of  Saint-Louis  en  I'lle?"    ^ 

"Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau?" 

"Aye,  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau;  does  he  live 
here?" 

"On  the  fourth  floor  above  the  entre-sol,  left-hand 
door.  By  the  way,  he  has  just  come  in,  you  may 
overtake  him  on  the  stairs." 

Fast  as  I  went,  my  man's  key  was  already  in  the 
lock  when  I  overtook  him. 

'  'Have  I  the  honor  of  speaking  to  Monsieur  Jacques 
Bricheteau?"  I  made  haste  to  say. 

"I  don't  know  him,"  he  replied  audaciously,  giv- 
ing the  key  a  double  turn. 

"Perhaps  I  do  not  pronounce  the  name  correctly, 
but  monsieur  I'organiste  of  Saint-Louis  en  I'lle?" 

"I  have  never  heard  there  was  an  organist  in  the 
house." 

"I  ask  your  pardon,  monsieur,  there  is  one;  the 
concierge  just  told  me  so.  Moreover,  it  surely  was 
you  whom  I  saw  come  from  the  organ-loft  just  now, 
escorted,  parbleu!  by  a  person — " 

Even  before  I  had  finished  my  sentence,  my 
singular  interlocutor  parted  company  with  me  by 
entering  his  room  and  closing  the  door.  For  a 
moment  I  believed  I  was  mistaken;  but,  upon 
reflection,  1  saw  that  it  was  impossible.  Moreover, 
was  1  not  dealing  with  a  man  who  had  given  proofs 
of  unexampled  secretiveness  for  many  years?  It 
was  plain  therefore  that  he  desperately  avoided  a 


254  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

meeting  with  me,  and  that  I  was  not  mistaken. 
Thereupon  I  began  to  pull  his  bell  violently, 
determined  to  triumph  by  my  persistence  over  the 
plea  in  bar  set  up  against  me.  For  some  time  the 
besieged  endured  in  patience  the  uproar  I  was 
making  at  his  door;  but  suddenly  I  noticed  that  the 
bell  had  ceased  to  ring.  Evidently  it  had  been 
muffled;  my  obstinate  friend  still  refusing  to  open, 
the  only  way  of  entering  into  communication  with 
him  was  to  burst  open  the  door.  But  that  would 
hardly  do.  I  went  down  to  the  concierge,  and  told 
him  of  my  ill-fortune  without  telling  him  of  the 
circumstances  that  explained  it;  in  that  way  I 
invited  his  confidence  and  made  an  opening  through 
which  to  procure  some  information  concerning 
the  impenetrable  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau. 
Although  furnished  with  all  the  readiness  I  could 
desire,  that  information  shed  no  light  on  the  situa- 
tion. The  sum  of  it  was  that  Monsieur  Bricheteau 
was  a  quiet,  gentlemanly  lodger,  but  very  uncom- 
municative; although  he  paid  his  rent  very  promptly, 
he  seemed  not  to  be  in  easy  circumstances,  had  not 
even  a  housekeeper  to  wait  upon  him  and  did  not 
take  his  meals  at  home.  As  he  went  out  every 
morning  before  ten  and  did  not  return  until  evening, 
he  probably  was  employed  in  an  office  or  gave 
music  lessons  at  pupils'  houses.  There  was  one 
detail  in  all  this  crop  of  vague  and  useless  facts  that 
seemed  to  be  of  some  slight  interest.  For  some 
months  past.  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau  had 
frequently  received  voluminous  letters,  which,   in 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  255 

view  of  the  large  amount  charged  for  postage,  might 
be  supposed  to  come  from  distant  countries;  but, 
despite  his  good-will,  the  worthy  concierge  had 
never  succeeded  in  deciphering  the  stamp  indicating 
the  point  of  departure;  and,  in  any  event,  the 
name  of  the  country,  which  he  had  very  imperfectly 
made  out,  had  entirely  gone  from  his  memory; 
thus,  for  the  moment,  that  fact,  which  might  have 
been  instructive,  was  of  absolutely  no  value. 
When  I  returned  home,  I  persuaded  myself  that  a 
pathetic  epistle  addressed  to  my  refractory  musician 
would  have  the  effect  of  prevailing  upon  him  to 
receive  me.  Mingling  a  shade  of  intimidation  with 
my  imploring  sentences,  I  did  not  leave  him  in 
ignorance  of  my  well -fixed  determination  to  fathom 
at  any  cost  the  mystery  which  weighed  upon  my 
life,  and  to  which  he  seemed  to  possess  the  key. 
Now  that  I  had  driven  an  entering  wedge  into  that 
secret,  it  was  for  him  to  consider  if  my  desperate 
efforts,  as  I  rushed  blindly  into  that  unknown  terri- 
tory, would  not  entail  much  more  inconvenience 
than  the  frank  explanation  into  which  I  earnestly 
conjured  him  to  enter  with  me. 

Having  thus  set  forth  my  ultimatum,  I  presented 
myself  at  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau's  domicile 
the  next  morning  before  nine  o'clock,  in  order  that 
it  might  reach  his  hands  with  the  least  possible 
delay.  But,  being  a  monster  of  discretion,  or  having 
some  utterly  inexplicable  motive  for  avoiding  a 
meeting  with  me,  the  maestro,  after  paying  his  rent 
for  the  current  and  the  ensuing  quarters,  had  sent 


256  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

his  furniture  away  at  daybreak,  and  it  was  very 
clear  that  he  paid  handsomely  for  the  silence  of  the 
men  employed  to  assist  in  that  sudden  change  of 
abode,  for  the  concierge  was  unable  to  learn  from 
them  the  name  of  the  street  to  which  his  tenant  had 
emigrated.  The  men  in  question  did  not  belong  in 
the  quarter,  by  the  way;  consequently  there  was 
no  chance  of  finding  them  later  and  making  them 
speak.  Impelled  by  curiosity,  which  had  at  last 
become  as  keen  as  my  own,  the  concierge  had 
devised  a  means  of  satisfying  it.  That  means, 
which  was  not  very  high-minded,  consisted  in 
following,  at  a  distance,  the  van  upon  which  the 
musician's  household  goods  were  loaded.  But  the 
devil  of  a  man  thought  of  everything;  and,  he  had 
cruised  off  and  on  in  front  of  the  door,  keeping  the 
too-zealous  concierge  in  sight,  until  his  porters  had 
gained  a  sufficient  start  to  be  in  no  danger  of  being 
traced.  However,  notwithstanding  my  slippery 
adversary's  obstinacy  and  adroitness,  I  did  not 
consider  myself  beaten.  I  felt  that  I  still  had  a  hold 
upon  him  by  means  of  the  organ  at  Saint-Louis; 
and  on  the  following  Sunday,  before  the  end  of 
high  mass,  I  was  stationed  at  the  door  of  the  loft, 
determined  not  to  let  the  sphinx  go  until  I  had  made 
him  speak  to  me.  But  another  disappointment  was 
in  store  for  me:  Monsieur  Jacques  Bricheteau  had 
sent  one  of  his  pupils  to  fill  his  place,  and  for  three 
Sundays  in  succession  the  same  state  of  affairs 
existed.  On  the  fourth  Sunday  1  determined  to  accost 
the  substitute  and  ask  him  if  the  maestro  was  sick. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  257 

"No,  monsieur,  Monsieur  Bricheteau  has  taken  a 
leave  of  absence;  he  has  gone  away  for  some  little 
time  on  a  matter  of  business." 

"Where  can  he  be  written  to,  in  that  case?" 
"I  am  not  quite  sure;  I  should  say,  however,  that 
you  might  address  your  letter  to  his  rooms,  close 
by,  on  Quai  de  Bethune. " 

"But  he  has  moved;  didn't  you  know  it?" 
"No,  I  did  not  indeed;  where  does  he  live?" 
I  was  very  lucky:  here  I  was  seeking  information 
from  a  man  who,  when  I  questioned  him,  asked  me 
to  enlighten  him!  As  if  to  complete  my  discomfor- 
ture,  while  I  was  seeking  for  light  in  such  a  holy 
spot,  I  saw  the  damned  deaf-mute  in  the  distance, 
watching  me  and  apparently  laughing  at  me. 
Luckily  for  my  impatience  and  my  curiosity,  which 
became  more  intense  with  every  delay,  and  were 
gradually  attaining  a  truly  disquieting  pitch,  a  ray 
of  light  appeared.  A  few  days  after  my  last  dis- 
appointment, a  letter  reached  me,  and,  being  more 
skilful  than  the  concierge  on  Quai  de  Bethune,  I  was 
able  to  make  out  at  first  glance  that  it  was  post- 
marked Stockholm,  SWEDEN — a  fact  that  did  not 
surprise  me  particularly.  At  Rome  I  had  been 
honored  with  the  friendship  of  Thorwaldsen,  the 
great  Swedish  sculptor,  and  I  had  often  met  fellow- 
countrymen  of  his  in  his  studio;  it  was  some  order 
perhaps  that  had  come  to  me  through  his  kind 
offices;  but  fancy  my  surprise  and  emotion,  when, 
having  broken  the  seal,  my  eyes  fell  upon  these 
words:  Monsieur  my  son.  The  letter  was  a  long  one 
17 


258  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and  I  had  not  the  patience  to  read  it  through  before 
ascertaining  what  name  I  was  entitled  to  bear.  So 
I  turned  hurriedly  to  the  signature  first  of  all:  did 
not  the  words  Monsieur  my  son,  which  I  had  seen 
quoted  several  times  in  history  as  used  by  kings  in 
addressing  their  offspring,  seem  to  denote  the  most 
aristocratic  origin?  But  my  disappointment  was 
complete:  of  signature  there  was  none  at  all. 

"Monsieur  my  son,"  said  my  anonymous  father,  "I  do  not 
regret  that,  by  your  passionate  persistence  in  attempting  to 
ascertain  the  secret  of  your  birth,  you  have  compelled  the 
person  who  had  charge  of  you  during  your  boyhood  to  come 
here  and  confer  with  me  concerning  the  course  which  that 
unruly  and  perilous  curiosity  might  impose  upon  us.  For  a 
long  time  I  have  cherished  a  thought  which  has  reached 
maturity  to-day,  and  its  execution  has  been  much  more  satis- 
factorily provided  for  by  spoken  words,  than  it  could  have 
been  by  correspondence.  Almost  immediately  after  your 
birth,  which  cost  your  mother  her  life,  being  forced  to 
expatriate  myself,  I  made  a  handsome  fortune  in  a  foreign 
country  and  I  occupy  an  eminent  position  in  the  government 
of  that  country.  1  look  forward  to  the  moment  when,  being 
free  to  restore  my  name  to  you,  I  shall  be  able  at  the  same 
time  to  procure  for  you  the  reversion  of  the  exalted  post  at 
which  I  have  arrived.  But  the  reputation  which,  I  am 
informed,  you  are  in  a  fair  way  to  acquire  in  art,  would  not 
be  a  sufficient  recommendation  to  ensure  your  elevation  to 
that  eminence;  I  desire  therefore  that  you  should  enter 
political  life;  and  as  there  are  no  two  ways  of  becoming  a  man 
of  prominence  in  that  career,  under  the  present  institutions  of 
France,  you  must  be  a  deputy.  I  know  that  you  are  not  of 
lawful  age,  and  that  you  do  not  pay  the  requisite  tax.  But 
in  a  year  you  will  be  thirty  years  old  and  that  is  just  the 
time  necessary  to  qualify  you,  after  becoming  a  landholder. 
To-morrow,  you  may  call  upon  Mongenod  Fr^res,  bankers, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  259 

Rue  de  ia  Victoire;  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  francs  will  be  paid  over  to  you:  you  must  employ 
it  at  once  in  the  purchase  of  an  estate,  using  the  balance  to 
acquire  an  interest  in  some  newspaper,  which,  when  the  time 
comes,  will  support  your  candidacy,  and  for  another  purpose 
which  will  be  explained  below.  Your  political  capacity  is 
guaranteed  by  the  person,  who,  with  a  disinterested  zeal 
which  I  can  never  adequately  requite,  has  watched  over  your 
friendless  youth.  For  some  time  past  he  has  followed  you 
and  listened  to  you,  and  he  is  sure  that  you  will  make  a 
praiseworthy  figure  in  the  tribune.  Your  opinions,  of  a 
liberalism  which  is  at  once  fervent  and  moderate,  are  agree- 
able to  me,  and  thus  far  you  have,  without  knowing  it, 
played  my  hand  very  skilfully. 

"I  do  not  tell  you  as  yet  the  probable  place  of  your  election; 
the  adroit  hand  that  is  secretly  laying  plans  to  ensure  it,  has 
the  greater  chance  of  success,  the  more  stealthy  and  shrouded 
in  darkness  its  proceedings  are;  but  its  success  may  be  in 
part  assured  by  the  execution  of  a  task  which  I  commend  to 
you  and  urge  you  to  undertake,  without  evidence  of  astonish- 
ment and  without  comment,  despite  its  apparent  singularity. 
For  the  present  you  will  continue  to  be  a  sculptor,  and  with 
the  talent  of  which  you  have  given  proof  you  will  proceed  to 
make  a  statue  of  Sainte  Ursule  for  us.  It  is  a  subject  lacking 
neither  in  poetry  nor  in  interest;  Sainte  Ursule,  virgin  and 
martyr,  was,  according  to  general  belief,  the  daughter  of  a 
prince  of  Great  Britain.  Martyrized,  toward  the  close  of  the 
fifth  century,  at  Cologne,  she  was  the  superior  of  a  convent 
of  women,  whom  the  common  people  in  their  innocence 
called  the  Elnen  Thousand  Virgins;  later  she  became  the  patron 
saint  of  the  order  of  Ursulines,  to  which  she  gave  her  name, 
and  also  of  the  famous  house  of  Sorbonne.  A  skilful  artist 
like  you  can,  it  seems,  to  me,  turn  all  these  details  to  good 
advantage.  Without  knowing  the  constituency  whose  repre- 
sentative you  are  to  become,  it  will  be  advisable  for  you  to 
allow  your  political  opinions  to  become  known  at  once,  as 
well  as  your  purpose  of  obtaining  a  seat  in  the  Chamber. 


26b        THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

But  the  one  thing  that  I  cannot  urge  upon  you  too  strenu- 
ously, is  absolute  secrecy  concerning  the  communication  made 
to  you  to-day,  as  well  as  patient  submission  to  your  present 
position.  In  Heaven's  name,  leave  my  representative  in 
peace,  and,  restraining  a  curiosity  that  might,  I  give  you  fair 
warning,  bring  the  greatest  disasters  upon  you,  await  the 
gradual  and  tranquil  opening  of  the  brilliant  future  for  which 
you  are  destined.  By  refusing  to  fall  in  with  my  plans,  you 
would  deprive  yourself  of  all  chance  of  ever  probing  the  mys- 
tery which  you  have  exhibited  such  an  intense  eagerness  to 
probe;  but  1  do  not  choose  to  admit  even  the  possibility  of 
any  resistance  on  your  part,  1  prefer  to  believe  in  your 
unquestioning  deference  to  the  wishes  of  a  father  who  will 
look  upon  that  day  as  the  happiest  of  his  life,  on  which  he 
is  at  last  privileged  to  make  himself  known  to  you. 

"P.  S. — Your  statue  is  intended  for  the  chapel  of  a  convent 
of  Ursuline  nuns,  and  must  be  of  marble.  Height,  one  metre, 
seven  hundred  and  six  millimetres,  in  other  words,  five  feet 
three  inches.  As  it  is  not  to  be  placed  in  a  niche,  do  not  slight 
any  portion  of  it.  The  cost  will  be  charged  to  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  referred  to  in  the  present 
letter." 

The  present  letter  left  me  dissatisfied  and  cold:  it 
deprived  me  of  a  long-cherished  hope,  that  of  find- 
ing some  day  a  mother  as  loving  as  yours,  whose 
blessed  affection  you  have  so  often  told  me  of,  my 
dear  friend.  After  all,  only  a  sort  of  half-light  was 
thrown  upon  the  mists  of  my  existence,  nor  did  it 
even  inform  me  whether  I  was  or  not  the  offspring 
of  a  legitimate  union.  It  seemed  to  me,  too,  that 
the  paternal  hints  had  a  very  imperious  and  very 
despotic  sound  as  addressed  to  a  man  of  my  years. 
Was  it  not  an  extraordinary  thing  to  turn  my  life 
inside  out,  as  they  used,  at  school,  to  make  us  turn 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  261 

our  coats  inside  out  by  way  of  punishment?  My 
first  impulse  was  to  urge  upon  myself  all  the  argu- 
ments that  might  have  been  urged  by  you  or  by 
others,  against  my  adopting  politics  as  a  vocation. 
However,  curiosity  impelled  me  to  call  upon 
Messieurs  Mongenod,  and  when  I  found  there,  in 
genuine,  current  funds,  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  francs  of  which  I  had  been  advised,  I  was 
led  to  reason  in  another  fashion.  I  reflected  that  a 
will  which  incurred  the  expense  of  advancing  that 
amount  at  the  outset,  must  be  very  much  in 
earnest;  inasmuch  as  it  knew  the  whole  story  and 
1  knew  nothing,  it  seemed  to  me  that  to  elect  to 
enter  into  a  struggle  with  it  was  neither  very  sensi- 
ble nor  very  opportune.  Had  I,  in  fact,  any  real 
repugnance  to  the  course  marked  out  for  me?  No; 
political  questions  have  always  interested  me 
greatly,  to  a  certain  point,  and  if  my  electoral 
venture  should  come  to  nothing,  I  would  return  to 
my  art,  a  no  more  ridiculous  figure  than  all  the 
ambitions  that  are  brought  into  the  world  still-born 
with  every  new  legislature.  So  I  purchased  the 
estate,  and,  having  become  a  shareholder  in  Le 
National,  I  found  there  some  encouragement  for  my 
political  aspirations,  together  with  the  certain  assur- 
ance of  hearty  support  when  I  shall  have  disclosed 
the  seat  of  my  candidacy,  concerning  which  it  has 
not  been  difficult  for  me  to  maintain  absolute  silence 
hitherto.  I  have  also  finished  the  Sainte  Ursule, 
and  now  I  am  awaiting  fresh  instructions,  which  I 
must  say  seem  to  me  very  long  in  coming,  now 


262  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

that  I  have  bruited  abroad  my  parliamentary  ambi- 
tion, and  that  the  commotion  of  an  approaching 
general  election,  for  which  1  am  fully  prepared, 
has  already  begun.  I  do  not  need,  in  view  of  the 
injunctions  of  paternal  prudence,  to  request  of  you 
absolute  discretion  touching  this  whole  subject. 
That  is  a  virtue  of  which,  to  my  knowledge,  you 
are  altogether  too  distinguished  an  exponent  to 
require  me  to  preach  to  you.  But  I  am  unquestion- 
ably wrong,  my  dear  friend,  to  indulge  in  these 
malicious  allusions  to  our  past,  for  I  am  your  debtor 
at  this  moment  in  a  greater  degree  than  you 
imagine.  To  some  slight  extent  from  interest  in 
me,  and  very  largely  from  the  general  aversion 
inspired  by  your  ex-brother-in-law's  arrogance,  at 
the  time  of  my  wound  the  democratic  party  came 
in  a  body  to  inscribe  their  names  at  my  house,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  my  candidacy  has  gained 
ground  by  reason  of  the  noise  made  by  this  duel, 
which  has  certainly  noised  my  name  abroad  most 
effectively.  And  so  a  truce  to  your  everlasting 
gratitude;  don't  you  see  that  it  is  I  who  am  your 
debtor.? 


* 

DORLANGE  TO  MARIE-GASTON 

Paris,  April,  1839. 
My  dear  friend, 

I  am  still  playing,  as  well  as  I  may,  my  rdle  of 
candidate  without  a  constituency;  my  friends  are 
surprised  at  it,  and  I  myself  am  anxious,  for  the 
general  election  comes  off  in  a  few  weeks,  and  if  all 
this  mysterious  preparation  is  destined  to  come  to 
naught,  consider,  I  beg  you,  what  a  fine  figure  I 
shall  cut  before  Monsieur  Bixiou,  of  whose  malicious 
remarks  you  wrote  me!  One  thought  consoles  me, 
however:  it  seems  to  me  very  unlikely  that  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  should  be  sown 
in  my  electoral  furrow,  without  an  attempt,  at 
least,  to  reap  some  harvest;  perhaps,  indeed,  to 
consider  the  matter  in  a  more  favorable  light,  this 
moderation  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  working 
for  me  by  stealth  and  with  so  little  apparent 
warmth,  should  be  understood  to  denote  great  con- 
fidence of  success.  However  that  may  be,  this 
long  suspense  keeps  me  in  a  state  of  idleness  which 
is  most  irksome  to  me;  being  astride  of  two  exist- 
ences, so  to  speak, — one  upon  which  I  have  not  yet 
entered  and  one  which  I  have  not  altogether  laid 
aside, — I  have  not  the  heart  to  undertake  any  work, 
and  I  remind  myself  of  a  traveler,  who  has  arrived 
at  the  diligence  office  ahead  of  time,  and  doesn't 
know  what  to  do  with  himself  or  how  to  pass  the 
(263) 


264  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

interval.  You  will  not  complain,  I  trust,  if  I  turn  this 
far  niente  to  the  advantage  of  our  correspondence, 
and,  faith !  as  I  have  the  leisure,  I  will  take  up  two 
points  in  your  last  letter,  to  which  it  did  not  at  first 
seem  to  me  worth  while  to  pay  any  great  attention. 
On  the  one  hand,  you  notified  me  that  my  parlia- 
mentary aspirations  had  not  the  approval  of  Mon- 
sieur Bixiou;  on  the  other  hand,  you  hinted  that  1 
might  incur  the  risk  of  falling  in  love  with  Madame 
de  TEstorade,  if  I  were  not  already  in  that  condition. 
Let  us  first  deal  with  Monsieur  Bixiou's  august  dis- 
approbation,— Monsieur  Mirabeau's  august  treason 
was  what  people  used  to  say. 

I  will  describe  the  man  to  you  in  a  single  word: 
Monsieur  Bixiou  is  envious.  He  unquestionably 
has  the  making  of  a  great  artist  in  him;  but,  in  the 
ordering  of  his  existence,  the  belly  has  killed  the 
heart  and  the  brain,  and  by  virtue  of  the  domination 
of  fleshly  appetites,  he  has  become  fixed,  for  good 
and  all,  in  the  calling  of  a  caricaturist,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  condition  of  a  man  who,  from  day  to  day, 
wastes  his  energies  on  trivial  productions,  genuine 
convict  labor,  which  enable  him  to  live  merrily,  but 
bring  with  them  no  consideration  and  no  promise 
for  the  future.  An  abortive  and  forever  impotent 
genius,  he  has  in  his  mind,  as  upon  his  face,  the 
eternal,  despairing  grimace  which  the  mind  of  man 
has  always  instinctively  attributed  to  fallen  angels. 
Just  as  the  spirit  of  darkness  prefers  to  attack  the 
great  saints,  who  remind  him  more  painfully  of  the 
angelic   nature   from   which   he   fell,   so   Monsieur 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  265 

Bixiou  delights  to  cast  his  slaver  upon  the  talents 
and  characters  in  which  he  divines  strength  and 
vigor  and  a  boldly  formed  resolution  not  to  throw 
themselves  away  as  he  has  done.  But  there  is  one 
fact  that  should  reassure  you  a  little  concerning  his 
calumnious  statement  and  his  malicious  slanders, — 
for,  from  the  story  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  told  you, 
I  see  that  he  is  undertaking  to  play  both  games, — 
and  that  is  that,  at  the  very  time  when  he  is  busy- 
ing himself  most  entertainingly  in  performing  a 
burlesque  autopsy  upon  me,  he  is  simply  an  obe- 
dient marionette  in  my  hands,  a  puppet  whose 
wires  I  hold,  and  whom  I  make  chatter  at  my  will. 
Being  satisfied  that  a  little  publicity  should  be  given 
in  advance  to  my  vocation  of  statesman,  I  thought 
of  procuring  a  few  public  shouters,  strong  in  the  jaw, 
as  Madame  Pernelle  says,  and  well  versed  in  the 
art  of  giving  tongue.  Among  those  cattle-show 
trumpeters,  if  I  had  known  of  one  with  a  shriller 
note  and  more  deafening  execution  than  my  Bixiou, 
I  should  have  given  the  preference  to  that  one.  I 
took  advantage  of  the  malevolent  curiosity  that 
constantly  impels  that  amiable  moth  to  insinuate 
himself  into  all  the  studios,  to  overwhelm  him  with 
my  confidence;  I  told  him  everything,  my  good 
fortune,  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs, 
which  I  attributed  solely  to  a  lucky  turn  on  the 
Bourse,  all  my  plans  for  my  course  in  Parliament, 
and  even  the  number  of  the  house  1  had  bought.  I 
am  very  much  mistaken  if  he  didn't  write  that 
number  down  somewhere  in  his  memorandum-book. 


266  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  enough  to  throw  a  little 
cold  water  on  the  admiration  of  his  auditors  of  the 
Montcornet  salon,  and  to  prove  that  that  terrible 
chatterer  is  not  altogether  a  marvelously  accurate 
bureau  of  informationl  As  for  my  political  horoscope, 
which  he  deigned  to  take  the  trouble  to  cast,  I 
cannot  say  that  his  astrology  is  entirely  lacking  in 
truth,  strictly  speaking.  It  is  very  certain  that, 
with  my  purpose  not  to  keep  perfectly  in  step  with 
any  party,  I  am  likely  to  reach  the  situation  so  well 
summed  up  by  an  advocate,  the  successor  of  Mon- 
sieur de  la  Palisse,  when  he  exclaimed  with 
burlesque  fervor:  "What  do  you  do,  messieurs, 
when  you  place  a  man  in  solitude?  You  isolate 
him."  Isolation  will  probably  be  my  lot  at  the 
outset,  and  the  artist's  life,  in  which  one  lives  alone, 
in  which  one  depends  upon  himself  for  everything, 
like  the  Immortal  Creator  whose  work  we  strive  to 
copy,  has  predisposed  me  only  too  thoroughly  to 
accept  and  enjoy  that  situation.  But  even  if, 
because  of  it,  I  am  to  be  deprived,  especially  at  the 
beginning,  of  all  influence  in  the  lobbies,  perhaps  it 
will  be  of  service  to  me  in  the  tribune,  for  there  I 
shall  speak  with  all  my  force  and  with  perfect 
freedom.  Having  no  entanglements  to  reckon  with, 
no  wretched  little  party  disputes,  there  will  be 
nothing  to  prevent  my  being  the  man  that  I  am  and 
expressing  in  their  blessed  crudity  all  the  ideas  that 
I  believe  to  be  sound  and  just.  I  know  very  well 
that  those  poor  little  truths  do  not  always  find  the 
time  propitious  for  spreading  contagion  among  an 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  267 

assemblage  of  men,  or  even  for  obtaining  a  respect- 
ful hearing.  But  have  you  not  noticed,  too,  that,  if 
you  know  how  to  grasp  opportunities,  you  come  at 
last  to  those  days  which  are,  so  to  speak,  the  fSte- 
days  of  morality  and  intelligence,  when  worthy 
thoughts  triumph  naturally,  almost  without  effort? 
On  such  days,  being  listened  to  by  the  most  ill- 
affected,  you  make  them  good  by  virtue  of  your  own 
goodness,  and  well-disposed,  temporarily  at  least, 
to  all  that  is  upright  and  true  and  elevated.  I  do 
not  blind  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that,  while  a  man 
may  gain  some  consideration  and  some  fame  as  an 
orator  by  the  course  1  have  marked  out,  he  will  not 
conduct  a  successful  hunt  for  a  portfolio  nor  acquire 
the  reputation  of  a  practical  man,  to  which  it  has 
become  fashionable  to  sacrifice  so  much  in  these 
days.  But,  if  I  have  no  influence  within  reach  of 
my  arm,  I  shall  bring  down  something  at  long  range, 
because,  most  of  the  time,  I  shall  speak  out  of  the 
window,  outside  of  the  confined,  stifling  sphere  of 
parliamentary  life,  over  the  head  of  its  paltry 
passions  and  its  petty  selfish  interests.  Now,  that 
sort  of  success  will  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
designs  which  the  paternal  good-will  seems  to  have 
upon  me.  The  desideratum  seems  to  be  that  I 
should  make  a  noise,  that  my  name  should  resound. 
From  that  standpoint  politics  has  an  artistic  side 
which,  upon  my  word!  will  not  be  too  flagrantly  out 
of  joint  with  my  past. 

Now  let  us  come  to  another  subject,  that  of  my 
passion,  already  born  or  to  be  born,  for  Madame  de 


268  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

TEstorade.  This  is  your  very  judicious  reasoning 
on  that  subject:  In  1837,  when  you  started  for 
Italy,  Madame  de  I'Estorade  was  still  in  the  full 
flower  of  her  beauty.  With  the  calm,  passionless 
existence  that  has  always  been  hers,  it  seems 
unlikely  that  the  burden  of  two  more  years  could 
have  made  much  impression  on  her,  and  my  strange 
and  audacious  persistence  in  seeking  inspiration 
from  her  proves  that  time  has  not  moved,  so  far  as 
that  privileged  person  is  concerned.  Therefore,  if 
the  harm  is  not  already  done,  I  must  be  on  my 
guard;  from  the  admiration  of  the  artist  to  that  of 
the  man  is  but  a  step,  and  the  story  of  the  late 
Pygmalion  appeals  to  me  to  exert  all  my  prudence. 
— In  the  first  place,  O  learned  and  mythological 
doctor,  I  might  call  your  attention  to  this  fact:  the 
party  principally  interested,  being  upon  the  spot 
and  much  better  placed  than  you  to  estimate  the 
dangers  of  the  situation  doesn't  seem  to  feel  the 
slightest  anxiety.  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  has  but 
one  complaint  against  me,  he  considers  my  visits 
too  infrequent  and,  in  his  eyes,  my  discretion  is 
pure  boorishness. — "Parbleu!"  you  will  exclaim, 
"a  husband;  why,  he  is,  like  all  husbands,  the  last 
to  know  that  his  wife  is  being  made  love  to!"— Very 
good.  But  what  of  Madame  de  I'Estorade's  great 
reputation  for  virtue,  what  of  that  cold,  almost  selfish 
common  sense  that  served  so  often  to  calm  the 
ardent  and  passionate  petulance  of  another  person 
who  was  well  known  to  you?  Will  you  not  agree, 
furthermore,  that  the  love  for  her  children,  carried 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  269 

to  the  pitch  of  fervor,  I  had  almost  said  of  fanaticism, 
in  which  it  appears  in  her,  is  an  almost  infallible 
safeguard?  For  her,  well.  But  it  is  not  her  peace  of 
mind,  but  mine,  with  which  your  friendship  is  con- 
cerned, and  if  Pygmalion  had  not  succeeded  in 
breathing  life  into  his  statue,  what  a  fine  existence 
his  love  would  have  laid  out  for  him!  I  might 
respond  to  your  charitable  anxiety  by  referring  to 
my  principles,  although  the  word  and  the  thing  have 
both  gone  sadly  out  of  fashion;  to  a  certain  absurd 
respect  which  1  have  always  professed  for  conjugal 
fidelity;  to  the  very  natural  tendency  of  the  serious 
enterprise  in  which  1  am  about  to  engage  to  divert 
my  thoughts  from  all  vagaries  of  the  imagination.  1 
might  inform  you,  too,  that,  if  not  by  virtue  of 
eminent  talent,  at  least  by  virtue  of  all  the  tenden- 
cies of  my  mind  and  my  nature,  I  belong  to  that 
strong-minded,  serious  school  of  artists  of  another 
age,  who,  realizing  that  art  is  long  and  life  is  short — 
ars  longa  et  vita  brevis — did  not  make  the  mistake  of 
wasting  their  time  and  their  creative  power  in  silly, 
tasteless  intrigues.  But  I  have  something  better 
than  all  this  to  offer  you.  As  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade 
has  not  left  you  in  ignorance  of  any  of  the  romantic 
circumstances  attending  my  meeting  with  his  wife, 
you  are  entitled  to  know  that  a  memory  first  led  me 
to  dog  the  steps  of  that  lovely  model.  Now,  that 
memory,  at  the  same  time  that  it  drew  me  toward 
the  fair  countess,  is  efficacious  beyond  anything  you 
can  imagine  in  keeping  me  away  from  her.  That 
statement    seems    to    you    cruelly    mystical    and 


270  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

enigmatical,  does  it  not?  but  wait  a  little  and  I  will 
explain  myself.  If  you  had  not  thought  it  best  to 
break  the  thread  that  had  long  bound  our  lives 
together,  I  should  not  have  so  many  arrears  to  make 
up  to-day;  but  as  you  have  made  a  settlement  of 
accounts  between  us  necessary,  you  must  take 
your  share  of  all  my  stories,  my  dear  boy,  and 
make  up  your  mind  to  listen  bravely. 

In  1835,  the  last  year  of  my  stay  in  Rome,  I  was 
quite  intimate  with  a  comrade  of  the  Academy 
named  Desroziers.  He  was  a  musician,  of  talented 
and  observing  mind,  who  would  probably  have 
attained  great  eminence  in  his  art,  had  he  not  been 
carried  off  by  typhoid  fever  the  year  after  my 
departure.  One  day  when  it  had  occurred  to  us  to 
extend  as  far  as  Sicily  one  of  the  trips  permitted  by 
the  regulations  of  the  school,  we  found  that  we  were 
absolutely  penniless,  and  as  we  scoured  the  streets 
of  Rome,  busily  seeking  some  means  of  restoring 
a  little  prosperity  to  our  finances,  we  happened  to 
pass  in  front  of  the  Braschi  Palace.  Its  great  gates 
stood  open,  giving  access  to  a  constant  stream  of 
persons  of  every  condition,  who  passed  in  and  out 
without  a  break. 

"Parbleu!"  said  Desroziers,  "this  is  our  chance!" 

And  without  his  deigning  to  explain  where  he  was 
taking  me,  there  we  were,  following  the  crowd,  and 
entering  the  palace  with  it. 

Having  ascended  a  superb  marble  staircase  and 
passed  through  a  long  succession  of  apartments  very 
poorly  furnished,  as  Roman  palaces  generally  are. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  27I 

their  whole  splendor  consisting  in  ceilings,  pictures, 
statues  and  other  works  of  art,  we  reached  a  room 
hung  entirely  in  black  and  illuminated  by  a  great 
quantity  of  tapers.  It  was,  as  you  already  under- 
stand, a  chamber  of  death.  In  the  centre,  upon  a 
platform  surmounted  by  a  rich  canopy,  reposed  a 
thing,  at  once  the  most  hideous  and  the  most 
grotesque  that  you  can  imagine:  fancy  a  little  old 
man  whose  hands  and  face  were  dried  up  and 
withered  to  such  a  degree  that  a  mummy  would 
have  seemed  appetizingly  corpulent  beside  him. 
Dressed  in  black  satin  short  clothes,  a  coat  of  violet 
velvet  cut  d-  lafrangaise,  and  a  white  waistcoat  with 
gold  embroidery,  from  which  protruded  an  enormous 
frill  of  English  point,  the  skeleton  had  his  cheeks 
covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  rouge,  which  made 
the  parchment-like  hues  of  the  rest  of  the  skin  stand 
out  so  much  the  more  prominently;  and  then,  on 
top  of  a  blond  wig  with  little  curls,  an  enormous 
plumed  hat,  in  which  he  seemed  to  be  swallowed 
up,  was  cocked  rakishly  over  his  ear  in  such  a  way 
as  to  provoke  the  risibility  of  the  most  respectful 
visitors,  do  what  they  would.  After  a  glance  at 
that  absurd  and  deplorable  exhibition,  the  indispen- 
sable preliminary  of  funeral  services  in  the  etiquette 
of  the  Roman  aristocracy: 

"That  is  the  end!"  Desroziers  said  to  me;  "now, 
come  and  see  the  beginning." 

Thereupon,  without  answering  any  of  my  ques- 
tions, because  he  desired  to  produce  a  dramatic 
effect,   he  led  me  to  the   Albani  Museum,   and, 


272  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

stationing  me  in  front  of  a  statue  of  Adonis  reclining 
on  a  lion's  si<in,  he  said: 

"What  do  you  thini<  of  that?" 

"That,"  I  replied,  after  a  first  glance,  "why,  it's 
very  fine,  as  an  antique." 

"Antique  as  I  am!"  rejoined  Desroziers;  and  he 
pointed  out  the  signature  on  a  corner  of  the  pedestal: 
Sarrasine,  1758. — See  Sarrasine. — 

"Antique  or  not,  it's  a  masterpiece,"  I  said,  when 
I  had  scrutinized  that  beautiful  creation  from  every 
point  of  view;  "but  how  are  this  masterpiece  and 
the  hideous  caricature  you  took  me  to  see  just  now, 
going  to  take  us  to  Sicily?" 

"I  began,  when  I  first  came  here,  by  asking  who 
Sarrasine  was." 

"I  have  no  need  to  do  that;  I  have  heard  of  this 
statue  before;  it  had  slipped  my  memory,  because, 
when  I  came  to  see  it,  the  Albani  Museum  was 
closed  for  repairs,  as  the  theatre  posters  say. 
Sarrasine,  I  was  also  told,  was  a  pupil  of  Bouchardon, 
and,  like  ourselves,  a  pensioner  of  the  King  of  Rome, 
where  he  died  in  the  first  six  months  following  his 
arrival." 

"But  of  what  did  he  die,  and  how?" 

"Of  some  disease  probably,"  I  replied,  little 
thinking  that  my  reply  was  in  some  sense  prophetic 
of  the  fate  of  him  to  whom  I  was  speaking. 

"Not  at  all,"  rejoined  Desroziers,  "artists  don't 
die  in  such  a  stupid  way  as  that." 

And  he  gave  me  the  following  details: 

"A  man  of  genius,  but  of  fierce  passions,  Sarrasine, 


THE   DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  273 

almost  immediately  after  his  arrival  in  Rome,  fell  in 
love  with  the  leading  singer  of  the  Argentina  theatre, 
named  La  Zambinella.  At  the  time  that  that  passion 
took  possession  of  him,  the  Pope  did  not  allow 
women  to  appear  on  the  stage  in  Rome;  but,  by 
favor  of  a  surgical  operation,  well  known  and 
commonly  practised  in  the  Orient,  the  difificulty  was 
overcome.  La  Zambinella  was  one  of  the  most 
marvelous  products  of  that  industry.  Driven  frantic 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  his  love 
had  gone  astray,  Sarrasine,  who,  before  he  obtained 
that  terrible  knowledge,  had  carved  in  his  imagina- 
tion a  statue  of  his  apocryphal  mistress,  was  on  the 
point  of  killing  him;  but  he  was  protected  by  an 
exalted  personage,  who,  taking  the  initiative,  cooled 
the  savage  sculptor's  blood  by  dint  of  two  or  three 
well-directed  thrusts  with  the  stiletto.  La  Zambi- 
nella did  not  approve  of  that  violent  proceeding,  but 
he  continued  none  the  less  to  sing  at  the  Argentina 
theatre  and  all  the  theatres  of  Europe,  amassing  a 
princely  fortune.  When  the  time  arrived  for  him 
to  leave  the  stage,  he  had  become  a  vain,  timid 
little  old  man,  but  wilful  and  capricious  as  a  woman. 
Bestowing  all  the  affection  of  which  he  was  capable 
upon  a  marvelously  beautiful  niece,  he  had  placed 
her  at  the  head  of  his  house;  she  was  the  Madame 
Denis  of  that  strange  Voltaire,  and  was  destined  to 
inherit  his  immense  wealth.  Having  fallen  in  love 
with  a  Frenchman  named  the  Comte  de  Lanty,  who 
was  supposed  to  be  a  skilful  chemist  although  very 
little  was  known  concerning  his  antecedents,  the 
18 


274  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

lovely  heiress  had  with  great  difficulty  obtained  her 
uncle's  permission  to  marry  the  man  of  her  choice. 
But  when  the  uncle,  weary  of  the  struggle,  gave 
his  consent  to  the  marriage,  he  stipulated  that  his 
niece  should  not  leave  him.  In  order  to  make  more 
sure  of  the  execution  of  that  stipulation,  he  gave 
her  no  dowry  nor  did  he  part  with  the  slightest 
portion  of  his  fortune,  although  he  expended  it  with 
lavish  hand  for  the  enjoyment  of  his  household. 
Suffering  intensely  from  ennui,  and  acting  constantly 
under  the  spur  of  an  unconquerable  longing  for 
movement,  the  strange  old  man  set  up  his  establish- 
ment in  the  most  distant  quarters  of  the  globe, 
hauling  in  his  train  the  young  husband  and  wife,  of 
whose  respect  and  affection  he  had  made  sure,  at 
least  during  his  life.  In  1829,  when  he  was  almost 
a  hundred  years  old,  and  in  a  sort  of  dotage,  although 
his  mind  was  still  clear  when  he  was  listening  to 
music,  there  was  a  question  of  settlements  to  be 
discussed  with  the  Lantys  concerning  two  children 
born  of  the  marriage,  and  he  took  up  his  abode  in 
a  superb  house  in  Faubourg  Saint-Honore.  All 
Paris  flocked  thither,  attracted  by  the  still  brilliant 
beauty  of  Madame  de  Lanty,  by  the  artless  charms 
of  her  daughter  Marianina,  by  the  splendor  of  fStes 
that  were  truly  regal  in  their  magnificence,  and  by 
an  indescribable  odor  of  the  unknown  with  which 
the  atmosphere  surrounding  the  mysterious  strangers 
was  laden.  Conjecture  was  especially  rife  concern- 
ing the  little  old  man,  who  was  treated  with  the 
utmost  care  and  consideration  and  at  the  same  time 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  275 

seemed  to  be  kept  in  private  confinement,  and  who 
glided  sometimes  like  a  spectre  through  the  sumptu- 
ous festivities,  from  which  they  strove  to  keep  him 
away,  and  which  he  seemed  to  take  malicious  delight 
in  marring  with  his  ghostlike  appearances.  The 
musket-shots  of  July,  1830,  put  the  phantom  to  flight, 
and,  upon  leaving  Paris,  to  the  despair  of  the  Lantys, 
he  had  obstinately  insisted  upon  returning  to  Rome, 
his  native  city,  where  his  presence  revived  all  the 
humiliating  memories  of  his  past.  But  Rome  was 
his  last  station,  he  died  here,  and  it  was  he  whom 
we  saw  so  absurdly  decked  out  in  the  death- 
chamber  at  the  Braschi  Palace,  and  he  again  whom 
we  had  before  our  eyes  at  the  Albani  Museum,  in 
all  the  splendor  of  his  youth." 

The  details  given  me  by  Desroziers  were  inter- 
esting beyond  question,  and,  furthermore,  it  was 
impossible  to  impart  more  dramatic  effect  to  a  con- 
trast, but  how  was  this  to  take  us  to  Sicily.?  that 
was  still  the  question. 

"You  have  all  the  talent  required  to  make 
a  copy  of  that  statue,  have  you  not?"  said  Desro- 
ziers. 

"I  like  to  think  so,  at  all  events." 

"And  I  am  sure  of  it,  for  my  part.  So  obtain 
permission  from  the  director  and  set  to  work  at 
once;  I  have  a  customer  for  the  copy." 

"Who  will  buy  it  of  us,  pray?" 

"Parbleu!  the  Comte  de  Lanty;  I  give  lessons  in 
harmony  to  his  daughter,  and  when  I  have 
announced  in  his  house,  that  somebody  is  making  a 


276  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

fine  copy  of  the  Adonis,  they  will  not  rest  until  they 
have  bought  it." 

"But  won't  that  look  a  little  like  blackmail?" 
"Not  at  all.  At  one  time  the  Lantys  themselves 
had  a  copy  painted  by  Vien,  because  they  couldn't 
buy  the  work  itself,  which  the  Albani  Museum 
refused  to  part  with  at  any  price.  Several  attempts 
at  reproduction  have  also  been  made  by  sculptors 
on  orders  from  them;  all  have  failed.  Succeed,  and 
you  will  be  paid  enough  to  make  the  trip  to  Sicily 
forty  times  over,  for  you  will  have  gratified  a  whim 
which  was  in  despair  of  itself,  and  which,  even  after 
the  money  is  paid,  will  consider  itself  still  in  your 
debt." 

Two  days  later  the  work  had  begun,  and,  as  it 
was  to  my  taste,  I  hurried  it  forward  so  eagerly 
that,  at  the  end  of  three  weeks,  the  Lanty  family, 
having  invaded  my  studio,  in  deep  mourning,  under 
Desroziers's  guidance,  were  able  to  inspect  a  rough 
model  far  advanced  toward  completion.  Monsieur 
de  Lanty  should  have  seemed  to  me  an  accom- 
plished connoisseur,  for  he  expressed  himself 
satisfied  with  my  work.  Marianina,  who  had  been 
her  great-uncle's  favorite  and  was  specially  men- 
tioned in  his  will,  seemed  more  delighted  than  all 
the  others  with  the  success  of  my  work.  Marianina 
was  at  that  time  a  girl  of  about  twenty-one;  I  will 
not  draw  her  portrait  for  you,  as  you  know  Madame 
de  I'Estorade,  whose  resemblance  to  her  is  most 
striking.  The  charming  girl,  already  an  accom- 
plished musician,  had  a  remarkable  taste  for  all  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  277 

arts.  As  she  came  to  my  studio  from  time  to  time, 
to  follow  the  progress  of  my  work,  which,  by  the 
way,  was  not  finished,  owing  to  an  accident,  she 
developed  a  taste  for  sculpture,  like  the  Princesse 
Marie  d'Orleans;  and  until  the  departure  of  her 
family,  which  took  place  a  few  months  before  I 
myself  left  Rome,  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty  took 
lessons  from  me.  I  was  a  thousand  leagues  from 
any  thought  of  re-enacting  Saint-Preux  or  Abelard; 
but  I  must  say  that  I  had  rare  good  fortune  in 
imparting  my  knowledge.  The  pupil  was  so  intelli- 
gent, so  prompt  to  take  advantage  of  the  slightest 
hints;  her  disposition  was  so  playful  and  her  judg- 
ment at  the  same  time  so  ripe;  her  voice,  when  she 
sang,  went  so  straight  to  the  depths  of  the  heart; 
and  at  every  instant  I  learned,  from  the  servants, 
who  adored  her,  of  so  many  noble,  high-souled, 
charitable  acts,  that,  except  for  my  knowledge  of 
her  immense  fortune,  which  kept  me  at  a  distance, 
I  might  have  incurred  something  of  the  danger 
against  which  you  seek  to  warn  me  to-day.  On 
the  other  hand,  Marianina  considered  my  method  of 
instruction  luminous.  Being  before  long  received 
in  the  house  on  a  more  or  less  familiar  footing,  I 
noticed  that  my  fair  pupil  did  not  seem  to  dislike 
my  conversation.  When  the  question  arose  whether 
she  and  her  family  should  return  to  Paris  to  live, 
she  suddenly  discovered  innumerable  attractions  in 
Rome  as  a  place  of  abode,  and  manifested  genuine 
regret  at  leaving  it;  and  I  believe,  God  forgive  me! 
that,  when  I  took  leave  of  her,  something  like  a  tear 


278  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

was  glistening  in  her    eye.     When  1  returned  to 
Paris,  my  first  call  was  at  the  H6tel  Lanty. 

Marianina  was  too  well-bred  and  by  nature  too 
kindly  to  go  so  far  as  to  be  discourteous  or  con- 
temptuous to  anyone;  but  at  the  outset  I  noticed 
that  a  singularly  cold  and  restrained  bearing  was 
substituted  for  her  former  engaging  and  friendly 
ease  of  manner.  What  seemed  probable  to  me  was 
that  the  liking  she  might  have  manifested,  I  will  not 
say  for  my  person,  but  for  my  conversation  and  my 
intellectual  powers,  had  been  noticed  by  her  family. 
She  had  probably  been  lectured  on  the  subject,  and 
she  seemed  to  me  to  be  acting  in  obedience  to  strict 
orders,  which  the  stern  and  by  no  means  gracious 
manner  of  Monsieur  and  Madame  de  Lanty  enabled 
me  readily  to  divine.  Some  months  later,  at  the 
Salon  of  1837,  I  thought  that  I  had  a  confirmation 
of  that  theory.  I  had  exhibited  a  statue  which 
made  some  sensation.  There  was  constantly  a 
crowd  around  my  Pandora.  I  frequently  went  there 
incognito,  and  lost  myself  in  the  throng,  to  enjoy 
my  glory  and  harvest  my  triumph  on  the  spot.  One 
Wednesday,  a  society  day,  I  saw  the  Lanty  family 
approaching  in  the  distance.  The  mother  was 
hanging  on  the  arm  of  a  well-known  Hon,  Comte 
Maxime  de  Trailles;  Marianina  had  her  brother  for 
a  cavalier;  while  Monsieur  de  Lanty,  who  looked 
careworn,  as  usual,  was  the  man  in  the  ballad  of 
Malbrouch,  you  know,  the  one  who  carries  nothing. 
By  clever  manoeuvring,  while  my  people  were 
working  their  way  through  the  crowd,  I  glided 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  279 

behind  them  so  that  I  could  hear  their  impressions 
without  being  seen.  Nil  admirari,  to  acknowledge 
no  beauty  in  anything,  is  the  natural  instinct  of 
every  man  of  fashion:  and  so,  after  a  very  cursory 
inspection  of  my  work,  Monsieur  de  Trailles  began 
to  discover  the  most  shocking  faults  in  it;  his  judg- 
ment was  rendered  in  a  loud  and  very  distinct 
voice,  so  that  no  part  of  his  condemnation  would  be 
lost  upon  anyone  within  a  certain  radius.  Marianina, 
having  a  different  opinion,  listened  to  the  profound 
critic  with  divers  shrugs  of  the  shoulders;  and, 
when  he  had  finished,  she  said  to  him: 

"How  lucky  that  you  came  with  us!  Except  for 
your  enlightened  judgment,  I  was  quite  capable  of 
considering  the  statue  an  admirable  piece  of  work, 
in  common  with  the  excellent  public;  really,  it's 
too  bad  that  the  author  is  not  here  to  learn  his  trade 
from  you." 

"Why,  but  he  is  right  there  behind  you," 
observed  a  stout  woman  to  whom  I  had  just  bowed, 
laughing  heartily;  she  was  an  ex-coachmaker's 
wife,  of  whom  I  hire  the  house  where  my  studio  is. 

Instinct  triumphed  over  reflection,  and  Marianina 
involuntarily  turned;  when  she  saw  me  the  blood 
rushed  to  her  face;  I  had  no  more  than  time  to  make 
my  escape.  A  girl  who  took  my  part  so  boldly,  and 
who  manifested  such  confusion  upon  being  surprised 
in  the  expression  of  her  good-will,  was  certainly  not 
likely  to  object  to  the  sight  of  me;  and  as,  at  the 
time  of  my  first  visit,  I  had  received  a  very  chilly 
welcome,  I  determined  to  make  another  trial  at  the 


280  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

close  of  the  exhibition,  having  meanwhile  been 
made  a  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  Perhaps 
the  distinction  that  had  been  conferred  upon  me 
would  entitle  me  to  more  courteous  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  the  haughty  Monsieur  de  Lanty. 

I  was  received  by  an  old  servant  of  whom 
Marianina  was  very  fond. 

"Ah!  monsieur,"  he  said,  "very  sad  things  have 
happened  here!" 

"What  do  you  mean?"  I  asked  eagerly. 

"I  will  announce  monsieur,"  was  his  only  reply. 

A  moment  later  I  was  ushered  into  Monsieur  de 
Lanty's  study. 

He  looked  at  me  without  rising,  and  greeted  me 
with  this  apostrophe: 

"I  consider  you  a  brave  man,  monsieur,  to  have 
thought  of  making  your  appearance  here." 

"Why,  I  have  not  as  yet  met  with  such  a 
reception  as  to  consider  that  I  needed  so  much 
courage." 

"You  have  come,  doubtless,"  continued  Monsieur 
de  Lanty,  "to  recover  what  you  were  awkward 
enough  to  leave  in  our  hands;  I  will  return  the 
precious  object  to  you,  monsieur." 

He  rose,  went  to  his  desk  and  took  from  a  drawer 
a  dainty  little  letter-case,  which  he  handed  to  me. 

"Ah!  to  be  sure,"  he  added,  as  I  manifested  a 
sort  of  stupefaction,  "the  letters  are  not  there;  I 
thought  you  would  allow  me  to  keep  them." 

"This  letter-case,  letters! — this  is  all  an  enigma 
to  me,  monsieur." 


MME.  DE  LANTY  TO  M.  DORLANGE 


While  he  was  uttering  that  sentence,  Madame  de 
Lanty  had  adroitly  taken  her  place  behind  her  hus- 
band, and,  by  means  of  supplicating  and  perfectly 
comprehensible  pantomime,  7vas  imploj'ing  me  to 
accept  the  position  against  tvhich  I  teas  defending 
myself. 


i:*^ 


',.,.f.,,,„,l.r  iisyi  ',f   '/>•;«*( t»  t  Xr. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  28 1 

At  that  moment  Madame  de  Lanty  entered  the 
room. 

"What  do  you  want?"  demanded  her  husband 
sharply. 

"I  was  told  that  monsieur  was  here,"  she  replied, 
"and  as  I  foresaw  that  you  and  he  would  have  an 
unpleasant  explanation,  1  do  my  duty  as  a  wife  by 
coming  to  stand  between  you." 

"It  will  not  be  difficult,  madame,"  I  said,  "for 
your  presence  to  impose  the  greatest  moderation 
upon  my  conduct,  for  what  is  taking  place  is 
evidently  the  result  of  a  misunderstanding." 

"Ah!  this  is  too  much,"  said  Monsieur  de  Lanty, 
returning  to  the  drawer  from  which  the  letter-case 
had  made  its  appearance, 

A  moment  later,  having  abruptly  placed  in  my 
hands  a  small  package  of  letters  tied  together  with 
a  pink  ribbon,  he  continued: 

"I  imagine  that  that  will  put  an  end  to  the  mis- 
understanding." 

I  looked  at  the  letters;  they  bore  post-office 
stamps  and  were  all  superscribed:  To  Monsieur 
Dorlange,  the  three  words  being  written  in  a 
woman's  hand  which  was  entirely  unfamiliar  to 
me. 

"You  are  better  informed  than  I,  monsieur,"  I 
replied  coldly;  "you  have  in  your  possession  letters 
that  seem  to  belong  to  me  but  that  have  never  been 
in  my  possession." 

"Faith,"  cried  Monsieur  de  Lanty,*'  I  must 
confess  that  you   are   a  wonderful   actor;   I  have 


282  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

never  seen  anyone  feign  innocence  and  astonish- 
ment so  naturally." 

While  he  was  uttering  that  sentence,  Madame  de 
Lanty  had  adroitly  taken  her  place  behind  her 
husband,  and,  by  means  of  supplicating  and  per- 
fectly comprehensible  pantomine,  was  imploring  me 
to  accept  the  position  against  which  I  was  defending 
myself.  My  honor  was  too  deeply  involved,  and  I 
had  too  little  understanding  of  what  I  was  doing,  to 
be  disposed  to  surrender  at  the  first  stroke.  So  I 
tried  to  look  about  a  little  and  take  my  bearings. 

"But,  monsieur,"  1  demanded,  "from  whom  are 
the  letters?  who  wrote  them  to  me?" 

"From  whom  are  the  letters?"  cried  Monsieur  de 
Lanty,  in  a  tone  that  ceased  to  be  ironical  to  become 
indignant 

"It  is  useless  to  deny,  monsieur,"  interposed 
Madame  de  Lanty,  "Marianina  has  confessed  every- 
thing." 

"Do  you  say  that  Mademoiselle  Marianina  wrote 
these  letters?"  I  rejoined.  "Then  there  is  a  very 
simple  expedient;  let  me  be  taken  into  her  presence; 
from  her  mouth  the  most  improbable  facts  will  be 
accepted  by  me  as  true." 

"A  very  gallant  trick,"  retorted  Monsieur  de 
Lanty;  "but  Marianina  is  no  longer  here,  she  is  in 
a  convent,  safe  forever  from  your  enterprises  and 
the  mad  impulses  of  her  absurd  passion.  If  that  is 
what  you  came  here  to  find  out,  you  have  your 
information.  Now  let  us  have  done  with  it,  for  1  do 
not  conceal  from  you  that  there  is  a  limit  to  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  283 

patience  and  self-restraint,  even  if  there  be  none  to 
your  impertinence." 

"Monsieur!"  I  exclaimed  excitedly. 

But  when  I  saw  Madame  de  Lanty  go  through 
the  form  of  imploring  me  on  her  knees,  I  reflected 
that  perhaps  Marianina's  future  might  be  influenced 
by  the  attitude  I  assumed.  Moreover,  Monsieur  de 
Lanty  was  slender  and  frail,  he  was  nearing  sixty 
and  seemed  very  conscientiously  persuaded  of  his 
imaginary  outrage;  so  I  did  not  take  up  his  harsh 
words,  but  took  my  leave  without  further  incident. 

I  had  hoped  that  the  old  servant  from  whom  I  had 
had  a  sort  of  foretaste  of  this  scene  would  be  in  my 
way  when  I  went  out  and  give  me  some  explanations; 
but  I  did  not  see  him,  and  I  remained,  utterly  unen- 
lightened, a  prey  to  an  infinitude  of  conjectures. 

I  had  hardly  left  my  bed  the  next  morning,  when 
Monsieur  TAbbe  Fontanon  was  announced— See 
A  Double  Family. — I  gave  orders  that  he  be 
admitted,  and  I  soon  found  myself  in  presence  of  a 
tall  old  man  with  a  bilious  complexion,  of  a  stern 
and  gloomy  cast  of  countenance,  who,  being 
evidently  conscious  of  his  unprepossessing  appear- 
ance, tries  to  atone  for  it  by  all  the  refinement  of 
the  most  exquisite  courtesy  and  by  a  show  of  over- 
acted but  glacial  obsequiousness. 

When  he  had  taken  a  seat,  he  began:  "Madame 
la  Comtesse  de  Lanty,  monsieur,  has  done  me  the 
honor  to  entrust  the  guidance  of  her  conscience  to 
me.  I  have  learned  from  her  of  a  scene  which  took 
place  yesterday  between  her  husband  and  yourself. 


284  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

As  prudence  forbade  her  giving  you,  with  her  own 
mouth,  certain  explanations  to  which  you  are  un- 
questionably entitled,  I  have  undertaken  to  trans- 
mit them  to  you,  and  it  is  for  that  purpose  that  you 
see  me  before  you." 

"I  am  listening,  monsieur,"  was  my  reply. 

"A  few  weeks  ago,"  the  abbe  continued,  "Mon- 
sieur de  Lanty  purchased  an  estate  in  the  suburbs 
of  Paris,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  first  fine  spring 
days,  he  took  possession  at  once  with  his  whole 
family.  Monsieur  de  Lanty  sleeps  little;  and  one 
night,  while  he  was  lying  awake — there  being  no 
light  in  his  room — he  fancied  that  he  heard  footsteps 
under  his  window,  which  he  at  once  threw  open, 
greeting  the  nocturnal  visitor,  whose  presence  he 
took  for  granted,  with  an  emphatic:  'Who  goes 
there?'  He  was  not  mistaken,  there  was  someone 
there,  someone  who  did  not  reply  and  at  once  took 
flight,  nor  did  the  two  pistol-shots  fired  by  Monsieur 
de  Lanty  produce  any  effect  At  first  he  believed 
that  it  was  an  attempted  burglary;  but  that  theory 
was  improbable,  for  the  chateau  was  not  furnished, 
the  new  owners  having  come  there  for  a  very  short 
stay;  thieves,  who  ordinarily  investigate,  could  not 
expect  to  find  many  articles  of  value  there;  further- 
more, another  piece  of  intelligence  turned  Monsieur 
de  Lanty's  suspicions  in  an  entirely  different  direc- 
tion. He  learned  that,  two  days  after  his  arrival,  a 
handsome  gentleman  had  hired  a  room  at  a  wineshop 
in  a  neighboring  village;  that  the  gentleman  seemed 
to  shun  observation,   and  that  he   had   gone   out 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  285 

several  times  at  night;  after  that,  it  was  evidently 
no  longer  a  question  of  thieves  but  of  a  lover." 

"1  know  no  novelist,  Monsieur  I'Abbe,"  I  said, 
interrupting  him,  "who  can  tell  a  story  better  than 
you." 

I  hoped  by  that  not  entirely  truthful  comparison 
to  induce  the  narrator  to  quicken  his  pace,  for  you 
will  understand  my  impatience  to  arrive  at  the  point. 

"Unfortunately,"  replied  the  abbe,  "it  was  a 
grave  reality.  You  may  judge  for  yourself.  Mon- 
sieur de  Lanty  had  been  watching  his  daughter  for 
a  long  while;  it  seemed  as  if  some  fierce  passion 
would  soon  explode  within  her.  You  yourself,  first  of 
all,  monsieur,  caused  him  some  uneasiness  at  Rome." 

"Quite  gratuitous.  Monsieur  I'Abbe,"  I  interposed. 

"Yes,  I  know  that  in  your  relations  with  Made- 
moiselle de  Lanty  you  have  never  exceeded  the 
limits  of  propriety.  However,  their  departure  from 
Rome  cut  short  that  first  anxiety;  but  in  Paris 
another  person  seemed  to  keep  our  young  brain 
busily  at  work,  and  from  moment  to  moment 
Monsieur  de  Lanty  proposed  to  have  an  explanation 
with  her  on  that  subject.  Now,  the  man  with  whom 
she  seemed  to  be  fascinated  is  an  audacious,  enter- 
prising individual,  quite  capable  of  taking  any  risk 
in  order  to  compromise  an  heiress.  When  questioned 
as  to  whether  she  had,  by  any  frivolous  conduct, 
encouraged  or  inspired  the  idea  of  the  insolent 
proceeding  whose  perpetrator  it  was  sought  to  dis- 
cover. Mademoiselle  de  Lanty's  attitude  was  calcu- 
lated to  avert  all  suspicion." 


286  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"I  would  have  sworn  it!"  I  cried. 

'*Wait,"  continued  tlie  abbe.  "A  maid  was 
thereupon  suspected,  and  she  was  at  once  ordered 
to  leave  the  house.  This  girl's  father  is  a  man  of 
violent  temper,  and  if  she  returned  home  under  that 
burden  of  disgrace,  she  might  expect  the  harshest 
treatment.  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty — we  must  do 
her  that  justice — had  a  Christianlike  impulse;  she 
did  not  choose  that  an  innocent  person  should  pay 
the  penalty  for  her;  she  threw  herself  at  her  father's 
feet  and  confessed  that  the  nocturnal  visit  was 
really  intended  for  her,  and  that,  although  she  had 
not  positively  authorized  it,  she  was  not  altogether 
surprised  by  it.  Monsieur  de  Lanty  at  once  men- 
tioned the  name  of  the  audacious  suitor;  but  the 
culprit  would  not  admit  that  her  father  was  right, 
and  at  the  same  time  she  refused  to  substitute 
another  name  for  the  one  she  disavowed.  The  day 
was  passed  in  that  struggle,  and  Monsieur  de  Lanty 
hoped  to  put  an  end  to  it  by  instructing  his  wife  to 
take  his  place  where  he  had  failed.  He  judged 
rightly  that  there  would  be  more  expansiveness, 
more  frankness  between  mother  and  daughter. 
And  in  fact,  when  left  alone  with  Madame  de 
Lanty,  Marianina  at  last  confessed  that  her  father's 
suspicions  were  just;  but  at  the  same  time  she  gave 
a  reason  for  her  persistent  reticence  which  was 
entitled  to  great  consideration.  The  man  whose 
suit  she  had  encouraged  has  had  several  fortunate 
duels  during  his  life.  His  birth  places  him  on  a 
footing  of  perfect  equality  with  Messieurs  de  Lanty, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  287 

he  is  in  the  same  social  circle,  and  consequently 
has  continual  opportunities  of  meeting  them.  Were 
there  not  great  disasters  to  be  dreaded?  How  could 
the  father  or  the  son  tolerate  his  presence  without 
calling  him  to  account  for  conduct  so  insulting  to  the 
honor  of  their  house?  What  was  to  be  done?  The 
imprudent  young  woman  herself  suggested  this  idea: 
to  give  Monsieur  de  Lanty  a  name  which,  while 
allowing  his  wrath  full  sway,  would  not  make 
revenge  a  necessity." 

"I  understand,"  I  broke  in,  "the  name  of  a  man 
who  is  not  born,  a  personage  of  no  consequence,  an 
artist  for  example,  a  sculptor  or  some  other  low  cur 
of  that  sort— " 

"I  think,  monsieur,"  rejoined  the  abbe,  "that 
you  attribute  to  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty  a  feeling 
that  she  is  very  far  from  entertaining.  She  has,  in 
my  opinion,  only  too  much  taste  for  the  arts,  and  it 
is  that  very  thing,  perhaps,  that  caused  this  fatal 
ebullition  of  her  imagination.  The  consideration 
that  decided  her  to  take  refuge  behind  your  name 
from  the  disasters  she  dreaded  was  the  recollection 
of  Monsieur  de  Lanty 's  former  suspicions  of  you; 
you  were  a  more  probable  accomplice,  I  think  I  can 
assure  you  that  she  saw  nothing  beyond  that." 

"But  that  letter-case.  Monsieur  I'Abbe,  and  those 
letters  that  played  such  a  strange  part  in  yesterday's 
scene?" 

"All  that  is  another  of  Marianina's  inventions; 
and  although,  under  the  circumstances,  her  extra- 
ordinary mental  resources  have  produced  a  good 


288  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

result,  it  was  in  ttiat  precise  direction  that  her  future 
seemed  especially  ominous  to  me,  if  she  remained 
in  the  world.  When  she  and  Madame  de  Lanty 
had  agreed  that  you  were  to  be  named  as  the 
nocturnal  prowler,  it  became  necessary  to  surround 
that  confession  with  the  most  favorable  conditions 
to  ensure  its  success.  Instead  of  making  the  con- 
fession in  words,  the  extraordinary  girl  conceived 
the  idea  of  acting  it.  She  passed  the  night  writing 
the  letters  that  were  shown  you.  Different  kinds 
of  paper,  the  handwriting  carefully  varied,  and  even 
the  color  of  the  ink  changed — nothing  was  over- 
looked by  her.  When  the  letters  were  written, 
they  were  placed  in  the  letter-case,  which  Monsieur 
de  Lanty  had  never  seen;  then,  after  putting  the 
whole  package  to  the  nose  of  a  hunting-dog,  whose 
rare  intelligence  has  led  to  his  being  invested  with 
the  freedom  of  the  house,  she  threw  it  into  one  of 
the  clumps  of  trees  in  the  park,  then  returned  to 
undergo  the  impatient  questioning  of  her  father. 
While  an  animated  discussion  was  in  progress 
between  them,  the  dog  appeared,  bringing  his 
mistress  the  letter-case;  observing  her  admirably 
well-feigned  confusion.  Monsieur  de  Lanty  seized 
the  suspicious  object,  and  everything  was  thereupon 
made  clear  to  him  in  accordance  with  the  deception 
they  had  carefully  arranged  for  him." 

"Did  Madame  de  Lanty  tell  you  all  these  details?" 
I  asked,  with  something  very  like  an  incredulous  air. 

"She  confided  them  to  me,  monsieur,  and  you 
yourself  were  offered  proofs  of  their  truth  yesterday. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  289 

By  refusing  to  accept  the  situation,  you  might  have 
compromised  the  whole  success  of  the  plan,  and 
that  is  why  Madame  de  Lanty  intervened.  I  am 
instructed  by  her  to  thank  you  for  your  connivance, 
passive  at  least,  in  that  pious  falsehood;  she  thought 
that  she  could  show  her  deep  gratitude  in  no  better 
way  than  by  placing  the  whole  secret  in  your  hands, 
and  confiding  it  to  your  discretion." 

"And  Mademoiselle  Marianina?"  I  asked. 

"As  Monsieur  de  Lanty  told  you,  she  was  at  once 
sent  to  a  convent  in  Italy.  In  order  to  avoid  all 
scandal,  she  is  credited  with  a  sudden  calling  for  a 
religious  life.  She  herself  will  decide  her  future  by 
her  conduct." 

Even  if  the  wound  inflicted  on  my  self-esteem  by 
that  tale,  if  true,  had  been  less  deep,  I  should  still 
have  doubted  it,  for  does  it  not  seem  to  you  very 
fanciful?  Since  then  something  has  come  to  light 
which  may  furnish  the  key.  Marianina's  brother 
has  recently  married  a  German  lady  of  a  grand- 
ducal  family.  Enormous  sacrifices  must  have  been 
demanded  of  the  Lantys  to  make  such  an  alliance 
possible,  and  is  it  not  likely  that  Marianina,  preferred 
in  her  great-uncle's  will  and  now  disinherited  by 
means  of  the  convent,  has  had  to  bear  the  expense 
of  this  princely  match?  Another  suggestion: 
Marianina  may  really  have  entertained  for  me  the 
sentiment  expressed  in  her  letters;  she  may  have 
been  childish  enough  to  write  them,  without  sending 
them.  Some  unlucky  chance  may  have  led  to  their 
being  discovered  in  her  hands:  then,  in  order  to 
19 


290        THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

punish  her,  not  for  having  written  them,  but  for 
having  thought  them,  she  was  shut  up  in  a  convent; 
and,  in  order  to  disgust  me  with  her,  they  constructed 
the  fable  of  this  other  love-affair,  in  which  I  was 
made  to  play  the  distasteful  role  of  lightning-rod. 
With  these  Lantys  one  may  believe  anything;  in 
addition  to  the  fact  that  the  head  of  the  family  has 
always  seemed  to  me  a  very  deep  character  and 
capable  at  need  of  the  blackest  schemes,  just 
imagine  those  people,  having  lain  all  their  lives,  so 
to  speak,  with  the  secret  of  a  fortune  of  base  origin 
— must  they  not  be,  by  this  time,  accustomed  to  all 
sorts  of  intrigues,  and  do  you  believe  that  they  have 
any  sense  of  shame  as  to  the  methods  they  employ? 
I  add  that  the  officious  intervention  of  Abbe  Fontanon 
justifies  all  sorts  of  evil  thoughts.  I  have  made 
inquiries  about  him:  he  is  one  of  those  vile  priests 
who  are  always  eager  to  dip  their  fingers  into  family 
secrets,  and  he  has  heretofore  made  trouble  in  the 
family  of  Monsieur  de  Granville,  who  was  procureur- 
general  at  the  royal  court  of  Paris  under  the 
Restoration. 

However  that  may  be,  I  do  not  yet  know  which 
of  my  conjectures  is  true  and  which  false,  nor  am 
I  likely  to  know  for  a  long  while.  But,  as  you  will 
understand,  the  thought  of  Marianina,  hovering  over 
all  this  darkness,  is  a  luminous  point  which  attracts 
my  eye  in  my  own  despite.  Ought  I  to  love  her? 
ought  1  to  hate  and  despise  her?  That  is  what  I 
ask  myself  every  day,  and  on  that  diet  of  uncertainty 
a  woman's  image  has  a  much  better  chance,  in  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  29I 

opinion,  to  establish  itself  firmly  than  to  fade  away. 
But  is  it  not  a  diabolical  combination  that  just  at 
this  moment  my  chisel  is  called  upon  to  produce  a 
pale  daughter  of  the  cloister  ?  Does  not  my  memory, 
in  that  case,  necessarily  become  my  imagination, 
and  could  I  invent  anything  other  than  the  besetting 
image  so  deeply  engraved  on  my  mind?  Thereupon 
appears  a  Marianina  in  flesh  and  blood,  and  because, 
for  the  greater  convenience  of  his  work,  the  artist 
takes  advantage  of  that  favor  of  chance,  he  must 
be  supposed  by  the  same  stroke  to  have  effected  a 
transfer  of  his  heart;  and  so,  without  effort  on  his 
part,  the  glacial  Madame  de  I'Estorade  is  assumed 
to  be  substituted  for  my  charming  pupil,  though 
placed  in  bolder  relief  by  the  double  halo  of  forbidden 
fruit  and  mystery!  In  a  word,  you  must  have  done 
with  your  suppositions.  The  other  day,  the  merest 
accident  prevented  my  telling  her  alleged  rival  the 
whole  story  of  Mademoiselle  de  Lanty.  If  I  had 
any  designs  upon  that  woman,  who  knows  how  to 
love  nothing  but  her  children,  that  would  be  a  fine 
way  to  pay  my  court  to  her,  you  must  agree — to 
tell  her  that  story! — And  so,  to  sum  up,  I  care  as 
little  for  Monsieur  Bixiou's  opinion  as  for  last  year's 
roses.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  love  Marianina; 
but  I  am  very  siire  that  I  do  not  love  Madame  de 
I'Estorade.  That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  frank  and 
clear  reply.  Now,  let  us  leave  everything  to  the 
future,  which  is  the  master  of  us  all. 


COMTESSE   DE    L'ESTORADE   TO   MADAME    OCTAVE 
DE   CAMPS 

Paris,  April,  1839 
Dear  Madame, 

Monsieur  Dorlange  came  last  evening  to  take  his 
leave  of  us.  He  starts  to-day  for  Arcis-sur-Aube, 
where  his  statue  is  to  be  unveiled.  That  is  also 
the  place  for  which  the  newspapers  of  the  opposi- 
tion say  that  he  is  to  be  a  candidate.  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  declares  that  a  worse  choice  of  a  con- 
stituency could  not  have  been  made,  and  that  it 
takes  away  all  chance  of  his  election;  but  that  is 
not  the  question.  Monsieur  Dorlange  arrived  early; 
I  was  alone;  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  was  dining  with 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  the  children,  who 
had  taken  a  long  walk  during  the  day,  had  them- 
selves asked  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  bed  earlier  than 
usual.  Thus  the  t§te-a-tete  interrupted  by  Madame 
de  la  Bastie  was  resumed  in  a  perfectly  natural  way, 
and  I  was  on  the  point  of  asking  Monsieur  Dorlange 
for  the  continuation  of  his  story,  of  which  he  has  as 
yet  told  me  only  the  last  words,  when  our  old  Lucas 
appeared  with  a  letter  for  me.  It  was  from  my 
Armand;  he  informed  me  that  he  had  been  quite  ill 
in  the  infirmary  since  morning. 

"Order  the  carriage,"  I  said  to  Lucas,  with  the 
emotion  you  can  imagine. 

(293) 


294  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

*'But,  madame,"  he  replied,  "monsieur  ordered 
the  carriage  for  half-past  eight,  and  Tony  has 
already  gone." 

"Then  call  a  cab  for  me." 

"I  don't  know  if  I  can  find  one,"  said  our  old 
servant,  who  is  a  great  man  for  raising  difficulties; 
"it  has  been  raining  hard  for  some  time." 

Without  paying  any  heed  to  that  remark,  and 
without  bestowing  a  thought  on  Monsieur  Doriange, 
whom  I  left  sadly  perplexed  at  having  to  retire 
without  taking  leave  of  me,  I  went  to  my  bedroom 
to  put  on  my  hat  and  shawl.  Having  hastily  made 
my  toilet,  I  returned  to  the  salon,  where  I  found  my 
visitor  waiting. 

"You  will  excuse  me,  monsieur,"  I  said,  "for 
leaving  you  so  abruptly:  1  am  going  at  once  to 
College  Henri  IV:  I  could  not  think  of  passing  the 
night  in  the  state  of  anxiety  caused  by  a  letter  from 
my  son  informing  me  that  he  has  been  in  the 
infirmary  since  morning." 

"But  surely  you  are  not  going  to  that  out-of-the- 
way  quarter  alone,  in  a  hired  carriage?" 

"Lucas  will  go  with  me." 

At  that  moment  Lucas  returned.  His  prediction 
had  come  true,  not  a  cab  to  be  found  on  the  stands; 
it  was  raining  in  torrents.  Time  was  flying;  even 
then  it  was  almost  too  late  to  be  admitted  to  the 
college,  where  everybody  is  in  bed  at  nine  o'clock. 

"We  must  do  something,"  1  said  to  Lucas;  "go 
and  put  on  some  heavy  shoes  and  go  with  me  with 
an  umbrella." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  295 

On  the  instant  I  saw  Lucas's  face  lengthen;  he  is 
no  longer  young,  he  likes  to  be  comfortable,  and 
every  winter  he  complains  of  rheumatism.  From 
several  objections  that  he  suggested  one  after 
another:  that  it  was  very  late;  that  we  should 
revolutioni:{e  the  college;  that  I  should  run  the  risk 
of  taking  cold;  that  Monsieur  Armand  couldn't  be 
very  sick  as  he  was  able  to  write  himself, — it  was 
clear  that  my  plan  of  campaign  was  not  at  all 
agreeable  to  my  venerable  companion.  Thereupon 
Monsieur  Dorlange  politely  offered  to  go  in  my  stead 
and  to  return  and  report;  but  that  middle  course  did 
not  remove  the  difficulty,  I  felt  that  I  must  see  for 
myself  in  order  to  be  reassured.  So,  after  thanking 
him,  I  said,  authoritatively: 

"Come,  Lucas,  go  and  get  ready,  and  return  at 
once,  for  there  is  one  of  your  observations  that  is 
undoubtedly  true:  it  is  late." 

But  Lucas,  being  thus  brought  to  bay,  resolutely 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt. 

"It  isn't  possible,"  he  said,  "for  madame  to  go 
out  on  foot  in  such  weather,  and  I  have  no  wisb  to 
have  monsieur  scold  me  for  assenting  to  such  an 
extraordinary  idea." 

"So  you  do  not  think  best  to  obey  me?" 

"Madame  knows  very  well  that  I  would  be  at 
her  service  for  any  reasonable  or  necessary  purpose, 
even  though  I  had  to  walk  through  fire!" 

"Of  course,  warmth  is  recommended  for  rheuma- 
tism, but  rain  is  bad  for  it." 

Turning  thereupon  to  Monsieur  Dorlange,  without 


296  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

listening  to  the  refractory  old  fellow's  reply,  I 
said: 

"As  you  have  offered  to  take  this  journey  alone, 
I  venture  to  hope  that  you  will  not  refuse  to  escort 
me." 

"I  am  like  Lucas,"  he  replied;  "it  does  not  seem 
to  me  that  it  is  absolutely  indispensable  for  you  to 
take  this  walk;  but  as  I  have  no  fear  of  being 
scolded  by  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  I  shall  have  the 
honor  of  accompanying  you." 

We  went  out;  and  as  we  were  going  down  the 
stairs,  I  thought  to  myself  that  life  is  full  of  strange 
incidents.  Here  was  a  man  of  whom  I  was  not 
perfectly  sure,  who,  two  months  ago,  was  prowling 
around  me  with  all  the  appearance  of  a  pirate,  and  in 
whose  hands,  nevertheless,  I  was  led  to  place  myself 
in  full  confidence  and  under  conditions  that  the  most 
favored  lover  would  hardly  have  dared  to  dream  of. 
It  was  a  horrible  night  in  very  truth;  we  had  not 
walked  fifty  yards  before  we  were  drenched,  not- 
withstanding Lucas's  enormous  umbrella,  which 
Monsieur  Dorlange  held  in  such  a  way  as  to  shelter 
me  at  his  own  expense.  At  that  juncture,  a  new 
but  fortunate  complication  arose.  A  carriage  passed 
us;  Monsieur  Dorlange  hailed  the  driver;  it  was 
empty.  To  inform  my  escort  that  I  did  not  intend 
to  allow  him  to  enter  the  carriage  with  me  was 
almost  impossible.  Not  only  would  such  evident 
distrust  have  been  insulting  to  the  last  degree,  but 
I  should  have  degraded  myself  immensely  by 
exhibiting  it,  should  I  not?    See,  dear  madame,  how 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  297 

slippery  the  downward  path  is,  and  how  truly  it  may 
be  said  that  showers  have  played  into  the  hands  of 
lovers  since  the  days  of  Dido  and  /Eneas!  It  is 
hard  to  talk  in  a  cab;  the  wheels  and  windows 
rattle  so  that  you  have  to  raise  your  voice.  Mon- 
sieur Dorlange  knew,  too,  that  I  was  suffering  keen 
anxiety;  so  he  had  the  good  taste  not  to  attempt  to 
carry  on  a  regular  conversation,  and  simply  broke 
the  silence  from  time  to  time,  with  a  sentence  or 
two — a  silence  which  our  situation  required  should 
not  be  too  absolute.  When  we  reached  the  college, 
Monsieur  Dorlange,  having  alighted  to  assist  me, 
seemed  to  realize  that  he  was  not  to  go  in  with  me, 
so  he  entered  the  carriage  again  to  wait  for  me. 
Monsieur  Armand  had  done  me  the  favor  of  treating 
me  to  a  sort  of  mystification.  His  serious  indisposi- 
tion reduced  itself  to  a  headache,  and  even  that  had 
disappeared  as  soon  as  he  wrote  to  me.  The  doctor, 
who  had  seen  him  during  the  day,  had  prescribed 
an  infusion  of  linden-leaves,  for  the  sake  of  pre- 
scribing something,  and  had  told  him  that  he  would 
be  in  condition  to  return  to  his  studies  the  next  day. 
I  had  taken  a  club  to  kill  a  fly,  and  had  been  guilty 
of  something  like  a  crime,  by  coming,  at  an  hour 
when  everybody  in  the  establishment  who  was  well 
had  long  been  in  bed,  to  find  monsieur  my  son  still 
up,  and  gravely  playing  a  game  of  chess  with  one  of 
the  hospital  attendants.  When  I  returned  from  my 
useful  expedition,  the  rain  had  entirely  ceased  and 
the  pavements,  washed  clean  by  the  rain  and 
entirely  free  from  mud,  gleamed  like  silver  in  the 


298  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

bright  moonlight.  My  heart  had  been  so  oppressed 
that  I  felt  the  need  of  fresh  air.  So  I  requested 
Monsieur  Dorlange  to  dismiss  the  carriage  and  we 
returned  on  foot.  It  was  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  him;  between  the  Pantheon  and  Rue  de  Varenne 
there  is  time  to  say  many  things;  but  Monsieur 
Dorlange  seemed  so  little  inclined  to  take  advantage 
of  his  situation,  that,  taking  Armand's  freak  for  his 
text,  he  entered  upon  a  dissertation  on  the  danger  of 
spoiling  children;  the  subject  is  not  an  agreeable  one 
to  me,  as  he  must  have  seen  from  the  somewhat  chill- 
ing manner  in  which  1  took  part  in  the  conversation. 

"Come,"  I  thought,  "we  may  as  well  have  the 
end  of  that  constantly  interrupted  story,  which 
resembles  Sancho's  famous  goatherd  story,  whose 
special  interest  lay  in  its  never  being  told." 

So  I  cut  my  serious  companion  short  in  his  theories 
of  education. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  I  said,  "that  this  would  not  be 
an  inopportune  time  to  resume  the  confidential 
communication  you  once  began  to  make  to  me. 
Here  we  are  sure  that  nobody  will  disturb  us." 

"I  am  afraid  that  I  am  a  wretched  story-teller," 
Monsieur  Dorlange  replied;  "I  expended  all  my 
energy  the  other  day  telling  Marie-Gaston  the  same 
story." 

"But  that  was  contrary  to  your  theory  of 
secrecy,"  I  observed  laughingly,  "which  holds  that 
even  a  third  person  is  too  many." 

"Oh!  Marie-Gaston  and  I  count  as  only  one; 
besides,  it  was  necessary  to  set  him  right  as  to  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  299 

curious  ideas  he  had  conceived  concerning  you  and 
myself." 

"What!  concerning  me?" 

"Yes,  he  maintains  that  one  is  apt  to  be 
permanently  dazzled  by  looking  too  much  at  the 
sun," 

"Which  means,  in  less  metaphorical  language?" 

"That,  in  view  of  the  strange  incidents  by  which 
the  honor  of  your  acquaintance  has  been  surrounded 
in  my  case,  I  might  very  well  be  in  danger  of  not 
maintaining  my  reason  and  my  sang-froid^  madame, 
in  my  relations  with  you." 

"And  does  your  story  set  at  rest  Monsieur  Marie- 
Gaston's  apprehension?" 

"You  shall  be  the  judge,"  was  the  reply. 

Thereupon,  without  further  preamble,  he  told  me 
a  long  story,  which  I  do  not  repeat  to  you,  dear 
madame,  in  the  first  place  because  it  seems  to  me  to 
have  no  bearing  on  your  duties  as  my  director,  and, 
secondly,  because  it  involves  a  family  secret  which 
calls  for  discretion  on  my  part  much  more  urgently 
than  I  had  at  first  supposed. 

In  a  word,  the  substance  of  the  story  is  that 
Monsieur  Dorlange  is  in  love  with  the  woman  who 
posed  in  his  imagination  for  his  Sainte  Ursule;  but, 
as  I  must  add  that  that  woman  is  apparently 
altogether  lost  to  him,  it  does  not  seem  at  all 
impossible  that  he  may  eventually  transfer  to  me 
the  sentiment  which  he  seems  still  to  feel  for  her 
to-day.  And  so  when,  having  concluded  his  narra- 
tive, he  asked  me  if  I  did  not  consider  that  it  was  a 


300  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

triumphant  answer  to  our  friend's  absurd  apprehen- 
sions, I  replied: 

"Modesty  makes  it  my  duty  to  share  your  feeling 
of  security;  and  yet  they  say  that  in  war  many 
missiles  kill  on  the  rebound." 

"So  you  believe  me  to  be  guilty  of  the  imperti- 
nence of  which  Marie-Gaston  does  me  the  honor  to 
suspect  me?" 

"I  do  not  know  that  you  would  be  impertinent," 
I  replied,  with  a  suggestion  of  acidity  in  my  tone, 
"but  in  case  such  a  fancy  should  ever  assail  your 
heart,  I  should  look  upon  you,  I  confess,  as  a  man 
to  be  greatly  pitied." 

It  was  a  keen  thrust 

"Oh,  well,  madame,"  he  retorted,  "do  not  pity 
me:  in  my  view  a  first  love  is  a  virus  which  averts 
a  second  attack." 

The  conversation  stopped  at  that  point;  his 
narrative  took  some  time  and  we  had  reached  my 
door.  I  could  but  ask  Monsieur  Dorlange  to  come 
in,  a  courtesy  which  he  accepted,  observing  that 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  had  probably  returned  and 
that  he  could  take  leave  of  him.  My  husband  was, 
in  fact,  at  home.  I  do  not  know  whether  Lucas,  to 
fortify  himself  in  advance  against  the  rebuke  I 
might  justly  bestow  upon  him,  had  tried  to  represent 
my  conduct  in  an  unfavorable  light;  or  whether 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  feeling  a  jealous  pang  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life,  Apropos  of  my  maternal 
escapade,  found  it  more  difficult  to  conceal  that 
sentiment  because  it  was  unfamiliar  to  him;  be  that 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  3OI 

as  it  may,  he  received  us  most  ungraciously,  saying 
to  me  that  it  was  an  unheard-of  thing  to  dream  of 
going  out  at  that  time  of  night,  in  such  weather,  to 
learn  the  condition  of  a  sick  boy  who,  by  the  very 
fact  of  his  writing  himself  to  tell  of  his  illness, 
showed  that  it  was  not  at  all  serious. 

After  I  had  allowed  him  to  be  utterly  discourteous 
for  some  time,  1  considered  it  high  time  to  cut  the 
scene  short. 

"I  wished  to  be  able  to  sleep  to-night,"  I  said  to 
him  in  a  peremptory  tone;  "so  I  went  to  the  college 
in  a  pelting  rain;  now  I  have  returned  by  bright 
moonlight,  and  I  beg  you  to  observe  that  monsieur, 
after  being  kind  enough  to  go  out  of  his  way  to 
escort  me,  has  taken  the  further  trouble  to  come 
upstairs  and  pay  his  parting  respects  to  you,  as  he 
leaves  us  to-morrow." 

I  have  too  much  influence  over  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  on  ordinary  occasions  for  this  call  to  order 
not  to  produce  its  effect;  but  I  saw  clearly  that 
there  was  something  of  the  displeased  husband  in 
his  behavior,  for,  having  attempted  to  use  Monsieur 
Dorlange  as  a  means  of  diversion,  I  soon  discovered 
that  I  had  simply  made  him  a  victim  of  my  ogre  of  a 
husband's  ill-humor,  which  he  vented  upon  him  in 
full  force.  After  informing  him  that  his  candidacy 
had  been  a  subject  of  much  discussion  at  the 
minister's  with  whom  he  had  dined.  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  began  by  detailing  with  malicious  glee 
all  the  reasons  he  had  for  fearing  that  a  crushing 
defeat  awaited   him;   that  the   electoral   body  of 


302  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Arcis-sur-Aube  was  one  of  those  of  whose  support 
the  ministry  was  most  certain;  that  they  had  sent  a 
man  of  rare  skill  down  there,  who  had  already  been 
at  work  on  the  election  for  several  days,  and  had 
despatched  most  satisfactory  intelligence  to  the 
government.  But  these  were  only  generalities,  to 
which  Monsieur  Dorlange  replied,  by  the  way,  with 
abundant  modesty  and  with  every  appearance  of 
having  made  up  his  mind  beforehand  to  the  varying 
chances  to  which  his  election  might  be  exposed. 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  held  in  reserve  one  last 
stroke  which,  under  the  circumstances,  was  likely 
to  produce  a  tremendous  effect,  as  it  dealt  a  blow 
simultaneously  at  that  candidate  and  the  lover, 
assuming  that  there  was  a  lover. 

"Look  you,  my  dear  monsieur,"  said  Monsieur 
de  I'Estorade  to  his  victim,  "when  you  run  the 
gauntlet  of  an  election,  you  must  reflect  that  you 
put  everything  at  stake,  your  private  as  well  as 
your  public  life.  Your  opponents  search  with 
pitiless  hands  your  present  and  your  past,  and  woe 
to  him  who  comes  forward  with  the  slightest  flaw  in 
his  armor!  That  being  so,  I  ought  not  to  conceal 
from  you  that,  at  the  minister's  this  evening,  a 
great  deal  was  said  of  a  little  scandal  which,  although 
very  pardonable  in  the  life  of  an  artist,  assumes 
much  more  serious  proportions  in  that  of  a  man 
seeking  the  mandate  of  his  fellow-citizens.  You 
understand  me:  I  refer  to  the  fair  Italian  who  lives 
in  your  house;  be  on  your  guard,  you  may  very 
well  be  called  to  account  by  some  puritanical  elector 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  303 

concerning  the  moral  aspect  of  her  presence  under 
your  roof." 

Monsieur  Dorlange's  reply  was  very  dignified. 

"I  have  only  one  wish  for  those  who  may  conceive 
the  idea  of  questioning  me  concerning  that  detail  of 
my  private  life,"  he  said,  "and  that  is  that  they 
may  have  no  more  painful  memory  in  their  own. 
If  I  had  not  already  exhausted  madame  by  an 
interminable  tale  during  our  return  from  the  college,  I 
would  tell  you  the  story  of  my  fair  Italian,  monsieur  le 
comte,  and  you  would  see  that  her  presence  in  my 
house  should  not  deprive  me  of  the  esteem  which 
you  have  hitherto  been  kind  enough  to  manifest." 

"Why,  you  take  my  remark  very  tragically!" 
rejoined  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  suddenly  softening 
when  he  learned  that  our  long  walk  had  been 
employed  in  story-telling:  "For  my  own  part,  as  I 
said  just  now,  I  can  see  nothing  unnatural  in  an 
artist  having  a  lovely  model  in  his  house,  but  it  is 
not  an  article  of  furniture  to  be  used  by  messieurs 
the  politicians." 

"The  thing  that  seems  better  fitted  for  their  use," 
replied  Monsieur  Dorlange,  with  much  animation, 
"is  the  advantage  that  can  be  gained  from  a  slander 
accepted  with  wicked  eagerness  and  before  any 
attempt  at  verification.  However,  far  irotn  dreading 
an  explanation  on  the  subject  you  mention,  I  desire 
it,  and  the  ministry  would  do  me  a  great  service  by 
instructing  this  wonderfully  clever  agent  whom  they 
have  placed  in  my  path,  to  raise  that  delicate  ques- 
tion before  the  electors." 


304  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"You  leave  to-morrow,  do  you?"  inquired  Mon- 
sieur de  TEstorade,  seeing  that  he  had  started  on 
a  course,  which,  instead  of  leading  to  Monsieur 
Dorlange's  discomfiture,  had  afforded  him  an 
opportunity  of  replying  with  much  loftiness  of 
manner  and  of  speech. 

**Yes,  and  early  in  the  morning,  so  that  I  shall 
have  the  honor  of  taking  leave  of  you  now,  as  I  still 
have  some  preparations  to  make." 

Thereupon  Monsieur  Dorlange  rose,  and,  after  a 
ceremonious  bow  to  me,  left  the  room,  without 
offering  his  hand  to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  who  did 
not  offer  him  his. 

"By  the  way!  what  was  the  matter  with  Ar- 
mand?"  asked  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  to  avoid  the 
inevitable  explanation  between  us. 

"Armand's  trouble  is  of  very  small  consequence," 
I  replied,  "as  you  must  have  guessed  when  you 
saw  me  return  without  him  and  without  any  indica- 
tion of  emotion;  but  a  more  interesting  question  is, 
what  is  the  matter  with  you  this  evening,  for  1  never 
saw  you  so  out  of  temper,  so  sour  and  so  impolite." 

"Why?  because  I  told  a  ridiculous  candidate  that 
he  would  have  to  wear  mourning  for  his  reputation?" 

"In  the  first  place,  that  was  not  a  courteous  thing 
to  do,  and  in  any  event,  the  time  was  ill  chosen 
with  a  man  upon  whom  my  maternal  anxiety  had 
just  imposed  an  abominable  duty." 

"I  am  not  fond  of  officious  people,"  rejoined 
Monsieur  de  I'Estorade,  adopting  a  much  higher 
tone  than  he  usually  does  with  me.     "When  all  is 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  305 

said,  if  this  gentleman  had  not  been  here  to  offer 
you  his  arm,  you  would  not  have  taken  this  ill- 
advised  excursion." 

"You  are  wrong,  for  I  should  have  taken  it  and 
in  an  even  more  ill-advised  fashion,  for  I  should 
have  gone  to  the  college  alone,  your  servants  being 
masters  here  and  having  declined  to  escort  me." 

"But  you  will  certainly  admit  that  if  anyone  had 
met  you  arm-in-arm  with  Monsieur  Dorlange,  in  the 
Pantheon  quarter,  at  half-past  nine  at  night,  it 
would  have  seemed  a  strange  thing,  to  say  the 
least." 

Making  a  pretense  of  discovering  at  that  moment 
what  I  had  known  for  an  hour,  I  cried: 

"Mon  Dieu,  monsieur,  after  fifteen  years  of 
married  life,  do  you  do  me  the  honor  of  being  jealous 
for  the  first  time.?  In  that  case  I  can  understand 
why,  notwithstanding  your  respect  for  the  proprie- 
ties, you  took  advantage  of  my  presence  to  interview 
Monsieur  Dorlange  on  the  subject — a  most  improper 
subject — of  the  woman  who  is  supposed  to  be  his 
mistress;  it  was  downright  perfidy  of  the  blackest 
kind,  and  you  were  playing  to  ruin  him  in  my 
esteem." 

His  purpose  thus  laid  bare,  my  poor  husband 
floundered  about  and  could  find  at  last  no  other 
expedient  than  to  ring  for  Lucas,  to  whom  he 
administered  a  stern  reproof;  that  was  the  end  of 
our  explanation.  However,  although  1  had  won 
that  easy  victory,  the  great  petty  events  of  that 
evening  made  an  extremely  unpleasant  impression 


306  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

upon  me  none  the  less.  I  had  returned  home  well- 
pleased,  I  thought  that  I  knew  at  last  how  to  behave 
toward  Monsieur  Dorlange.  To  be  frank  I  will  not 
conceal  from  you  that  when  he  hurled  at  me  his 
famous:  Do  not  pity  me,  as  women  always  have  a 
little  of  the  woman  in  them,  I  felt  as  if  my  self- 
esteem  had  sustained  a  slight  bruise;  but,  as  I  went 
upstairs,  I  said  to  myself  that  the  quick,  emphatic 
tone  in  which  those  words  were  spoken  entitled 
them  to  great  credit.  They  were  certainly  the 
frank,  artless  explosion  of  genuine  sentiment;  that 
sentiment  was  not  concerned  with  me,  but  was 
addressed  with  emphasis  to  another.  I  might 
therefore  be  fully  reassured.  But  what  think  you 
of  the  conjugal  dexterity  which,  while  seeking  to 
compromise  in  my  thoughts  a  man  with  whom  my 
mind  was  only  too  busily  occupied,  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  appear  in  the  most  advantageous 
light  and  to  stand  forth  in  bolder  relief  than  ever? 
For,  it  was  impossible  to  be  mistaken — the  emotion 
with  which  Monsieur  Dorlange  repelled  the  insinua- 
tion concerning  his  conduct  was  the  cry  of  a  con- 
science which  lives  at  peace  with  itself,  and  feels 
that  it  possesses  the  means  of  putting  calumny  to 
confusion.  And  so  I  ask  you,  dear  madame,  who 
is  this  man  whose  vulnerable  side  no  one  can  find, 
and  whom  we  have  seen  on  two  or  three  occasions  be- 
have like  a  hero,  and  that  almost  without  seeming  to 
be  conscious  of  it,  as  if  he  never  dwelt  elsewhere  than 
on  the  heights  and  that  grandeur  were  his  element? 
How  can  it  be  possible  that  that  Italian  woman  is 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  307 

nothing  to  him,  despite  all  the  indications  to  the 
contrary?  In  that  case,  in  the  midst  of  our  petty, 
blighted  morals,  there  must  still  be  characters  strong 
enough  to  run  along  the  inclined  plane  of  the  most 
hazardous  opportunities,  without  ever  falling!  What 
a  nature  is  that,  that  can  thus  pass  through  all  the 
bramble-bushes  without  leaving  any  of  its  fleece 
behind!  And  I  thought  of  making  a  friend  of  that 
exceptional  man. 

Oh!  let  me  not  make  a  jest  of  the  matter!  Let 
this  Dante  Alighieri  of  sculpture  become  convinced 
at  last  that  his  Beatrice  will  never  be  restored  to 
him,  and  let  him  suddenly  return  to  me,  as  he  has 
already  done  once,  what  will  become  of  me?  Can 
one  ever  be  secure  against  the  power  of  fascination 
such  men  exert?  As  Monsieur  de  Montriveau  said 
to  the  poor  Duchesse  de  Langeais,  not  only  must 
one  not  touch  the  axe,  but  one  must  sedulously  keep 
away  from  it,  lest  a  ray  from  that  polished,  gleaming 
steel  strike  your  eyes.  Luckily  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade  is  already  ill-disposed  toward  this  dan- 
gerous man;  but  monsieur  le  comte  need  have  no 
fear,  I  shall  take  pains  to  nourish  and  cultivate  that 
budding  germ  of  hostility.  Then,  if  Monsieur 
Dorlange  should  be  elected,  he  and  my  husband 
would  be  in  opposite  camps,  and  political  passion, 
thank  God!  has  often  cut  short  intimacies  of  longer 
standing  and  more  firmly  established  than  this. — 
"But  he  is  your  daughter's  rescuer,  but  you  were 
afraid  of  his  falling  in  love  with  you,  and  he  does 
not  think  of  you;  but  he  is  a  man  of  distinguished 


308  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

intellect  and  exalted  sentiments,  and  you  have  no 
possible  cause  of  reproach  against  him!" — Excellent 
reasons  all  those,  dear  madame!  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  he  frightens  me.  Now,  when  I  am 
frightened,  I  neither  discuss  nor  agree,  I  simply 
look  to  see  if  1  still  have  sufficient  legs  and 
breath,  and  then  I  just  run  and  run  until  I  feel 
that  1   am  out  of  danger. 

DORLANGE  TO  MARIE-GASTON 

Paris,  April,  1839. 
On  returning  from  the  L'Estorade's,  where  I  had 
been  to  make  my  adieux,  I  found,  my  dear  friend, 
the  letter  in  which  you  announce  your  approaching 
arrival.  1  will  wait  for  you  all  day  to-morrow,  but  at 
night  I  must  start,  without  further  delay,  for  Arcis- 
sur-Aube,  where  within  a  week  my  political  imbrogl- 
io will  reach  its  denouement.  What  ups  and  downs  I 
shall  encounter  in  that  Champenois  town,  which,  it 
seems,  I  aspire  to  represent;  upon  what  support  and 
upon  whose  assistance  am  I  to  rely;  in  a  word,  who 
has  undertaken  to  make  my  electoral  bedj* — of  all 
this  I  am  as  entirely  ignorant  as  I  was  a  year  ago, 
when  I  first  received  the  news  of  my  parliamentary 
calling.  It  is  only  a  few  days  since  I  received  a 
communication  emanating  from  the  paternal  chan- 
cellor's office,  postmarked  Paris  this  time,  not 
Stockholm.  In  view  of  the  tenor  of  this  document, 
I  should  not  be  at  all  surprised  to  find  that  the 
eminent  functions    performed    by  the  mysterious 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  309 

author  of  my  being  at  a  northern  court  are  simply 
those  of  a  Prussian  corporal;  for  it  is  impossible  to 
issue  instructions  couched  in  a  more  imperative, 
more  peremptory  tone,  and  dealing  with  such 
desperate  minuteness  with  the  most  trivial  details. 
The  memorandum  bears  the  following  headline  by 
way  of  title: 

"WHAT  MONSIEUR  MY  SON  IS  TO  DO" 

On  receipt  of  these  presents,  \  was  to  dispatch  the 
Sainte  Ursule,  to  overlook  the  packing  and  boxing  in 
person,  and  then  to  send  it  by  the  fastest  carrier  to 
Mother  Marie  des  Anges,  superior  of  the  community 
of  Ursuline  nuns  at  Arcis-sur-Aube  (AUBE),  Do  you 
understand?  without  that  supplementary  direction, 
one  might  suppose  that  kxc\s-sur-Aube  is  located  in 
the  department  of  Gironde  or  Finist^re. — I  was 
then  to  make  a  bargain  with  the  messenger  that 
the  package — my  Sainte  Ursule  has  become  a 
package — should  be  delivered  without  fail  at  the 
door  of  the  chapel  of  the  convent.  Then  I  was 
given  to  understand  that  I  must  follow  in  a  very 
few  days,  so  as  to  be  at  said  Arcis-sur-Aube  on 
May  2nd  at  the  latest.  The  affair  is  conducted  in 
military  fashion,  you  see;  so  that,  instead  of  asking 
for  a  passport,  I  thought  for  a  moment  of  going  to 
the  bureau  of  military  administration  and  obtaining 
a  soldier's  route-memorandum,  and  traveling  by 
stages  at  three  sous  the  league.  The  hotel  at  which 
I  am  to  stay  is  selected  and  indicated  to  me.     I  am 


310  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

expected  at  the  Hotel  de  la  Poste;  for  that  reason  I 
should  have  preferred  the  Three  Moors  or  the  Silver 
Lion,  which  I  suppose  they  have  at  Arcis  as  else- 
where; I  cannot  put  aside  that  whim.  Again,  I  am 
instructed,  on  the  eve  of  my  departure,  to  cause 
announcement  to  be  made  in  such  newspapers  as 
are  at  my  service,  that  I  propose  to  come  forward 
as  a  candidate  in  the  electoral  arrondissement  of 
Arcis-sur-Aube  (AUBE),  but  to  avoid  making  a 
profession  of  faith,  which  would  be  at  once  useless 
and  premature.  There  was  another  injunction 
which,  while  it  humiliates  me  a  little,  does  not  fail 
to  give  me  some  faith  in  all  that  is  happening.  On 
the  very  morning  of  my  departure,  I  am  to  go  to 
Mongenod  Fr^res,  and  draw  a  further  sum  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs,  which  is  to  be 
deposited  there  in  my  name;  you  will  be  very  careful, 
my  instructions  continue,  that  the  money  is  not  lost 
or  stolen,  en  route  from  Paris  to  Arcis-sur-Aube. 
What  do  you  think  of  this  last  article,  my  dear 
friend?  This  money  is  to  be  deposited;  therefore  it 
may  not  be,  and  suppose  it  isn't?  And  then,  what 
am  I  to  do  with  it  at  Arcis?  I  am  to  attack  my 
election  in  the  English  fashion  evidently,  and  that  is 
why  a  profession  of  faith  would  be  useless  and 
premature.  As  for  the  recommendation  not  to  lose 
the  money  or  allow  it  to  be  stolen,  don't  you  think 
that  it  makes  a  child  of  me  in  the  most  extraordinary 
way?  Since  I  read  that  clause  I  have  had  a  strong 
inclination  to  suck  my  thumb  and  order  a  padded 
cap. — But  it's  of  no  use  for  my  father  to  put  my 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  3II 

mind  on  the  rack  by  all  these  strange  performances; 
were  it  only  for  the  respect  I  owe  him,  I  would  cry, 
like  Bazile  when  speaking  of  Comte  Almaviva: 
"That  devil  of  a  man  always  has  his  pockets  full  of 
irresistible  arguments!"  1  let  myself  go  therefore, 
with  my  eyes  closed,  with  the  current  that  draws 
me  on,  and,  notwithstanding  the  news  of  your 
speedy  arrival,  to-morrow  morning,  after  calling  on 
Mongenod  Fr^res,  I  shall  gallantly  set  forth,  pictur- 
ing to  myself  the  stupefaction  of  the  good  people  of 
Arcis  when  they  see  me  drop  suddenly  down  among 
them,  much  like  the  little  Jacks-in-the-box  that  fly 
up  when  you  touch  a  spring. 

I  have  already  produced  the  desired  effect  in 
Paris.  The  National  announced  my  candidacy 
yesterday  morning  in  the  most  glowing  terms,  and 
it  seems  that  I  was  on  the  table-cloth  a  long  while 
to-night  at  the  house  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
where  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  dined.  Let  me  hasten 
to  add,  still  on  the  authority  of  Monsieur  de 
I'Estorade,  that  the  general  feeling  there  was 
certainty  of  my  non-success.  The  worst  that  the 
ministry  had  to  fear  in  the  arrondissement  of  Arcis 
was  the  nomination  of  a  Left  Centre  candidate;  as 
for  the  democratic  party,  which  I  claim  to  represent, 
it  cannot  even  be  said  to  exist  there;  but  the  Left 
Centre  candidate  has  already  been  settled  by  the 
despatch  of  a  courtier  of  the  most  alert  and  crafty 
species,  and  at  the  moment  that  my  name  is  put 
forward,  like  a  lost  ball,  the  election  of  a  conserva- 
tive  seems    to   be    already  assured.     Among  the 


312  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

moving  causes  of  my  inevitable  defeat,  Monsieur  de 
TEstorade  deigned  to  mention  one  detail  concerning 
which,  my  dear  friend,  I  am  greatly  surprised  that 
you  have  not  delivered  a  little  moral  lecture,  for  it 
was  one  of  the  most  entertaining  slanders  put  in 
circulation  in  the  Montcornet  salon  by  the  highly- 
honored  and  highly-honorable  Monsieur  Bixiou.  It 
has  reference  to  a  superb  Italian,  whom  I  am  sup- 
posed to  have  brought  with  me  from  Italy,  and  to  be 
now  living  with  on  most  uncanonical  terms.  Tell 
me,  what  deterred  you  from  demanding  the  explana- 
tions that  the  subject  seemed  to  require?  Did  you 
consider  the  matter  so  disgraceful  that  you  feared  to 
offend  my  modesty  by  so  much  as  referring  to  it? 
or  have  you  sufficiently  implicit  confidence  in  my 
morals  not  to  feel  the  need  of  being  enlightened  in 
that  regard?  I  did  not  have  time  to  enter  into  the 
necessary  explanations  with  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade, 
nor  have  I  the  time  now  to  offer  them  to  you  of  my 
own  free  will.  My  purpose  in  mentioning  this 
trivial  incident  is  to  lead  up  to  something  which  I  think 
I  have  noticed,  and  I  leave  it  to  you  to  verify  the 
justness  of  my  observation  when  you  arrive. 

I  have  a  sort  of  idea  that  it  would  not  be  agreeable 
to  Monsieur  de  I'Estorade  to  have  me  succeed  in  my 
electoral  campaign.  He  never  bestowed  any  great 
approbation  upan  my  projects  in  that  direction,  and 
he  has  constantly  tried  to  turn  me  away  from  them 
by  arguments,  all  urged,  it  is  true,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  my  own  interest.  But  now  that  the  idea 
has  taken  shape  and  body  and  has  gone  so  far  as  to 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  313 

be  talked  about  in  ministerial  salons,  one  gentleman 
begins  to  speak  sharply,  and,  at  the  same  time  that 
he  takes  a  sort  of  malevolent  joy  in  prophesying 
defeat  as  my  portion,  behold  he  throws  a  charming 
little  infamous  slander  at  my  head,  beneath  which 
he  proposes  to  bury  me  in  pure  friendship.  Why  is 
this?  I  will  tell  you:  the  fact  is  that  the  dear  man, 
although  he  was  under  obligation  to  me,  was 
conscious  of  a  superiority  to  me  of  which  my 
election  to  the  Chamber  would  deprive  him,  and  it 
is  not  pleasant  for  him  to  renounce  that  superiority. 
After  all,  what  is  an  artist,  man  of  genius  though  he 
be,  beside  a  peer  of  France,  a  personage  who  puts 
his  hand  to  the  guidance  of  the  great  political  and 
social  machine,  a  man  who  has  access  to  the  king 
and  ministers,  and  who  would  have  the  right,  if  the 
impossible  should  happen  and  such  audacity  should 
seize  him,  to  deposit  a  black  ball  against  the  Budget? 
Well,  don't  you  see  that  I  am  ambitious,  in  my  turn, 
to  be  such  a  man,  such  a  privileged  individual,  and 
with  even  more  prestige  and  authority  in  that 
insolent  elective  Chamber?  Is  not  that  fatuous  and 
presuming  beyond  all  measure?  and  so,  monsieur  le 
comte  is  in  a  rage.  Nor  is  that  all.  Messieurs  the 
titled  politicians  have  a  hobby,  to-wit  they  have 
been  initiated  by  a  long  course  of  study  in  a  certain 
self-styled  difificult  science  which  they  call  the 
science  of  affairs,  and  which  they  alone  have  the 
right  to  understand  and  practise,  as  doctors  say  of 
medical  science.  They  do  not  therefore  patiently 
abide  the  thought  that  the  first  varlet  who  happens 


314  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

along,  a  journalist  for  example,  or,  worse  than  that, 
an  artist,  a  carver  of  images,  should  assume  to 
insinuate  himself  into  their  domains  and  speak  his 
mind  there  by  their  side.  A  poet,  an  artist,  a 
writer  may  be  endowed  with  faculties  of  a  high 
order,  they  are  willing  to  agree  to  that;  their  very 
professions  import  such  faculties;  but  they  are  not 
statesmen.  Even  Chateaubriand,  although  he  was 
more  favorably  situated  than  any  one  of  us  to  pro- 
cure a  place  in  that  governmental  Olympus,  was 
nevertheless  turned  out  of  doors,  and  one  morning  a 
very  concise  little  note,  signed  Joseph  de  Villele, 
dismissed  him,  a  fitting  fate  for  the  author  of  Rene, 
Atala  and  other  literary  futilities.  I  am  well  aware 
that  time  and  that  tall  posthumous  child  of  our  own 
whom  we  call  posterity  end  by  doing  strict  justice 
and  putting  every  man  in  his  place.  About  the 
year  2039,  if  the  world  deigns  to  last  so  long,  people 
will  have  a  clear  idea,  I  trust,  of  what  Canalis, 
Joseph  Bridau,  Daniel  d'Arthez,  Stidmann  and 
Leon  de  Lora  really  were  in  1839;  whereas  an 
infinitely  small  number  of  persons  will  know  that  at 
the  same  time  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  I'Estorade  was 
a  peer  of  France  and  president  of  one  of  the 
chambers  of  the  Cour  des  Comptes,  Monsieur  le 
Comte  de  Rastignac,  Minister  of  Public  Works,  and 
Monsieur  le  Baron  Martial  de  la  Roche-Hugon,  his 
brother-in-law,  a  diplomat  and  Councilor  of  State, 
employed  on  service  more  or  less  extraordinary. 
But,  pending  that  tardy  classification  and  that  far-off 
readjustment  of  reputations,   it  does   not  seem  to 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  315 

me  a  bad  idea  to  let  these  great  geniuses  of  govern- 
ment know,  from  time  to  time,  that  unless  a  man's 
name  be  Richelieu  or  Colbert,  he  is  exposed  to 
rivalry  on  every  side  and  forced  to  accept  it.  And 
so,  from  that  ill-natured  standpoint,  I  take  pleas- 
ure in  my  enterprise,  and,  if  I  am  elected, — unless 
you  assure  me  that  I  put  a  wrong  construction  on 
L'Estorade's  conduct  this  evening — 1  shall  find  more 
than  one  opportunity  to  make  him  understand,  him 
and  others  too,  that  one  can,  when  one  chooses, 
climb  the  railings  of  their  little  private  park  and 
strut  about  there  as  their  equals. 

But  1  have  chattered  enough  about  myself,  my 
dear  friend,  oblivious  to  the  painful  emotions  that 
await  you  on  your  return  here.  How  will  you 
endure  them?  instead  of  putting  them  aside,  will 
you  not  go  obligingly  to  meet  them,  and  will  you 
not  take  a  melancholy  pleasure  in  reviving  their 
bitterness?  Great  God!  I  will  say  to  you  of  such 
great  griefs  as  yours  what  I  said  to  you  a  moment 
ago  of  our  great  geniuses  of  government:  that  we 
must  consider  them  as  they  will  appear  in  time  and 
space,  when  they  become  intangible,  imperceptible, 
and  when  biography  seizes  upon  a  man  and  they 
become  of  no  more  account  than  the  hair  that  falls 
from  his  head  when  he  combs  it  every  morning. 
The  lovely  mad  creature  with  whom  you  passed 
three  years  of  intoxication,  thought  that  she  could 
put  her  hand  where  death  was;  but  he,  laughing  at 
her  arrangernents,  her  plans,  her  refinements,  her 
skill  in  bedecking  life,  abruptly  and  roughly  seized 


3l6  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

upon  her.  You  were  left  behind,  with  youth,  intel- 
lectual gifts,  and  also — and  it  is  a  great  force,  make 
no  mistake — utter  and  premature  disillusionment. 
Why  do  you  not  do  as  I  do?  why  do  you  not  join 
me  in  the  political  arena?  Then  there  would  be  two 
of  us  to  carry  out  the  plan  I  have  in  mind,  and  we 
would  show  them  what  two  decided  and  energetic 
men  can  do,  harnessed  together,  as  it  were,  and 
working  together  under  the  heavy  yoke  of  justice 
and  truth.  But  if  you  think  that  I  am  too  much 
inclined  to  become  epidemic  and  to  inoculate  every- 
body who  comes  along  with  my  parliamentary 
yellow  fever,  at  least  return  to  the  career  of  letters, 
in  which  you  had  already  made  a  place  for  yourself, 
and  ask  your  imagination  to  make  you  forget  your 
heart,  which  talks  to  you  too  much  of  the  past. 
For  my  part,  I  will  make  all  the  noise  I  can  around 
you,  and,  even  though  the  continuation  of  our  corres- 
pondence should  encroach  upon  my  sleep,  I  will  care- 
fully keep  you  posted  as  to  all  the  varying  fortunes  of 
the  drama  in  which  I  am  about  to  take  part,  in  order 
to  distract  your  mind,  whether  you  will  or  not. 

Reaching  Paris  without  lodgings  engaged  before- 
hand, it  will  be  very  friendly  of  you  and  very  much 
like  the  man  you  used  to  be,  if  you  will  take  up 
your  quarters  in  my  house,  instead  of  going  to  Villa 
d'Avray,  which  I  consider  an  ill-advised  and 
dangerous  place  of  abode  for  you.  You  will  be  able 
to  pass  judgment  yourself  upon  my  fair  house- 
keeper, and  see  how  far  she  has  been  slandered  and 
misunderstood.     You  will  also  be  near  L'Estorade, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  317 

upon  whom  I  rely  to  console  you;  lastly,  it  would 
be  a  charming  expiation  of  all  the  involuntary 
offences  of  which  you  may  have  been  guilty  toward 
me.  At  all  events,  I  have  given  my  instructions  on 
that  assumption  and  your  room  awaits  you.  The 
put-of-the-way  quarter  in  which  I  live  will  be  a 
transition  from  the  noisy,  infernal  Paris  to  which  I 
suspect  it  will  be  hard  for  you  to  accustom  yourself 
anew.  I  live  not  far  from  Rue  d'Enfer,  where  we 
once  lived  together,  and  where  we  had  so  many 
happy  hours.  What  dreams,  what  projects  we 
formed  in  those  days,  and  how  little  real  life  has 
realized  them!  Our  most  frequent  dream  was 
glory,  and  that,  the  only  one  which  life  has  appar- 
ently chosen  to  fulfill  in  some  degree,  we  voluntarily 
abandon:  you  to  suffer  and  weep,  I  to  run  after  an 
unsubstantial  relationship,  upon  which  I  don't  know 
whether  I  shall  have  reason  to  congratulate  myself 
some  day  or  not!  While  the  constantly  changing 
tide  of  life  has  carried  away  everything,  our  dikes, 
our  little  gardens,  our  rose-bushes,  our  villas,  one 
thing  has  remained  at  anchor — our  long-standing, 
sacred  friendship;  do  not  squander  it  any  more,  I  im- 
plore you,  my  dear  prodigal  child,  and  do  not  run  the 
risk  of  falling  out  with  that  Northern  court,  of  which 
I  may  perhaps  some  day  be  the  Suger  or  the  Sully. 
P.  S. — You  have  not  yet  arrived,  my  dear  friend, 
and  I  close  my  letter,  which  will  be  handed  to  you 
by  my  housekeeper  when  you  present  yourself  at 
my  domicile,  for  I  am  very  sure  that  your  first  visit 
will  be  to  me;  you  will  not  know,  of  course,  until 


3l8  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

then,  that  I  am  absent.  I  went  this  morning  to  Mon- 
genod  Freres;  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
francs  were  there,  but  a  very  extraordinary  circum- 
stance was  connected  with  the  deposit:  the  money 
was  in  the  name  of  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Sallenauve, 
called  Dorlange,  sculptor,  Rue  de  I'Ouest,  42.  Thus, 
notwithstanding  a  title  which  had  never  before  been 
mine,  the  money  was  certainly  intended  for  me, 
and  it  was  paid  over  to  me  without  objection.  I 
had  sufficient  presence  of  mind,  when  talking  with 
the  cashier,  not  to  seem  too  much  astounded  by  my 
new  name  and  my  new  title;  but  I  had  a  private 
interview  with  the  elder  Monsieur  Mongenod,  a  man 
who  enjoys  a  most  excellent  reputation  in  the 
banking  business,  and  to  him  I  frankly  expressed 
my  surprise,  asking  him  for  explanations  which  I 
supposed  he  could  give  me.  He  could  tell  me 
nothing  at  all:  the  money  had  come  to  him  through 
a  Dutch  banker,  his  correspondent  at  Rotterdam, 
and  that  is  all  he  knows  about  it.  Deuce  take  it! 
What  is  going  on?  Am  I  going  to  be  a  nobleman 
now.?  Has  the  moment  come  for  my  father  to  make 
himself  known  to  me?  I  start  upon  my  journey  in 
a  state  of  emotion  and  anxiety  which  you  will 
understand.  Until  further  orders,  I  shall  direct  my 
letters  to  you  at  my  own  house;  if  you  do  not  decide 
to  stay  there,  let  me  know  your  address  soon,  for  it 
seems  to  me  that  we  are  going  to  have  much  to 
tell  each  other.  Have  no  confidences  with  the 
L'Estorades,  I  beg  you,  and  let  all  this  be  between 
ourselves. 


DORLANGE  TO  MARIE-GASTON 

Arcis-sur-Aube,  May  3,  1839. 

Last  evening  at  seven  o'clock,  my  dear  friend, 
before  Maitre  Achille  Pigoult,  royal  notary  at  the 
residency  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  took  place  the  obsequies 
and  burial  of  Charles  Dorlange,  who,  soon  after, 
like  a  butterfly  emerging  from  its  chrysalis,  reap- 
peared in  society  under  the  name  and  features  of 
Charles  de  Sallenauve,  son  of  Frangois-Henri- 
Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis  de  Sallenauve.  Here- 
with follows  the  narrative  of  the  events  preceding 
that  brilliant  and  glorious  transformation. 

Setting  out  during  the  evening  of  May  ist  from 
Paris,  which  city  I  left  amid  the  excitement  of  all 
the  official  rejoicing  of  Sainte-Philippe's  day,  I  made 
my  entry  into  the  town  of  Arcis  on  the  next  day  in 
the  afternoon,  in  conformity  with  the  paternal  com- 
mand. You  can  imagine  that  my  astonishment  was 
by  no  means  mild  when,  upon  alighting  from  the 
coupe,  I  saw  in  the  street  in  which  the  diligence  had 
come  to  a  halt,  that  slippery  Jacques  Bricheteau, 
whom  I  had  not  seen  since  our  fateful  meeting  at 
lie  Saint-Louis.  On  this  occasion,  instead  of  con- 
ducting himself  after  the  manner  of  Jean  de  Nivelle's 
dog,  I  beheld  him  come  toward  me,  with  a  smile  on 
his  lips,  and  he  offered  me  his  hand,  saying: 

(319) 


320  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"At  last,  dear  monsieur,  we  are  almost  at  the 
end  of  our  mysteries,  and  soon,  1  hope,  you  will 
cease  to  think  that  you  have  any  reason  to  complain 
of  me." 

In  the  same  breath,  and  as  if  acting  under  the 
impulse  of  a  pressing  anxiety,  he  asked  me: 

"Have  you  brought  the  money?" 

"Yes,"  I  replied,  "it  is  neither  lost  nor  stolen." 

And  I  took  from  my  pocket  a  wallet  containing 
the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  in  bank- 
notes. 

"Very  good,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau.  "Now, 
let's  go  to  the  Hotel  de  la  Poste,  where  you  know, 
doubtless,  who  is  awaiting  you?" 

"No,  indeed  I  do  not,"  I  replied. 

"Did  you  not  notice  the  designation  under  which 
the  money  was  handed  over  to  you?" 

"On  the  contrary,  that  strange  circumstance 
struck  me  at  once,  and  I  confess  that  it  has  kept  my 
imagination  busily  at  work." 

"Well,  in  a  very  few  moments  we  will  remove 
entirely  the  veil  of  which  we  have  taken  pains  to 
raise  one  corner,  so  that  you  might  not  come  too 
rudely  in  contact  with  the  great  and  fortunate  event 
about  to  take  place  in  your  life." 

"Is  my  father  here?" 

I  asked  the  question  eagerly,  but  without  the 
profound  emotion  that  would  probably  have  been 
aroused  within  me  by  the  thought  of  embracing  a 
mother. 

"Yes,"  replied  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "your  father 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  32 1 

awaits  you;  but  it  is  my  duty  to  put  you  on  your 
guard  against  a  probable  lack  of  warmth  in  his 
greeting.  The  marquis  has  suffered  much;  the  life 
at  court  which  he  has  led  has  accustomed  him  to 
give  little  external  expression  to  his  feelings;  more- 
over, he  has  a  horror  of  anything  likely  to  suggest 
bourgeois  manners;  do  not  be  surprised  therefore 
by  the  coldly  dignified  and  aristocratic  reception 
which  he  may  be  disposed  to  give  you;  he  is  a  good 
man  at  heart,  and  you  will  appreciate  him  more 
fully  when  you  know  him." 

"Well,"  1  thought,  "these  are  extremely  cheerful 
preliminaries!" 

And  as  I  did  not  feel  very  emotionally  inclined 
myself,  I  anticipated  that  this  first  interview  would 
be  marked  throughout  by  a  temperature  below  zero. 

On  entering  the  room  where  the  marquis  was 
waiting  for  me,  I  saw  a  very  tall,  very  thin  and 
very  bald  man  seated  at  a  table  on  which  he  was 
arranging  papers.  At  the  noise  we  made  in  opening 
the  door,  he  pushed  his  spectacles  on  top  of  his  head, 
rested  his  hands  on  the  arms  of  his  chair,  and  waited, 
with  his  face  turned  toward  us. 

"Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Sallenauve!"  said  Jacques 
Bricheteau,  imparting  to  the  announcement  all  the 
solemnity  that  an  introducer  of  ambassadors  or  a 
chamberlain  could  have  put  into  the  words. 

Meanwhile,  the  presence  of  the  man  to  whom  I 
owed  my  being  had  melted  my  ice  in  an  instant, 
and,  as  I  went  up  to  him  with  a  quick,  eager  move- 
ment, I  felt  the  tears  coming  to  my  eyes.     He  did 


322  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

not  rise.  Not  the  slightest  trace  of  emotion  appeared 
upon  his  features,  which  bore  the  stamp  of  distinction 
that  used  to  be  called  the  grand  air;  he  contented 
himself  with  putting  out  his  hand,  shook  mine  in  a 
limp  sort  of  way,  and  said: 

"Take  a  seat,  monsieur;  I  have  not  the  right  as 
yet  to  call  you  my  son." 

When  Jacques  Bricheteau  and  I  were  seated,  this 
extraordinary  parent  continued: 

"So  you  have  no  reluctance  to  accept  the  political 
situation  which  we  are  trying  to  secure  for  you.?" 

"On  the  contrary,"  I  replied,  "although  the  idea 
took  me  by  surprise  at  first,  I  soon  became  accus- 
tomed to  it,  and  I  have  carefully  followed  all  the 
orders  transmitted  to  me,  in  order  to  assure  its 
success." 

"Excellent,"  said  the  marquis,  taking  from  the 
table  a  gold  snuf¥-box,  which  he  began  to  turn  about 
in  his  fingers. 

"Now,"  he  added,  after  a  moment's  pause,  "I 
owe  you  some  explanations,  and  our  friend  Jacques 
Bricheteau,  if  he  will  be  kind  enough  to  do  so,  will 
give  them  to  you."  Which  was  equivalent  to  the 
old  royal  formula:  My  chancellor  will  tell  you  the 
rest. 

"To  go  back  to  the  beginning,"  said  Jacques 
Bricheteau,  accepting  the  power  of  attorney  thus 
conferred  upon  him,  "I  must  inform  you  first  of  all, 
my  dear  monsieur,  that  you  are  not  a  Sallenauve  by 
direct  descent.  Monsieur  le  marquis,  returning  from 
the  emigration,  about  1808,  made  the  acquaintance 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  323 

of  your  mother,  about  the  same  time,  and  early  in 
1809  you  became  the  fruit  of  that  connection.  Your 
birth,  as  you  already  know,  cost  your  mother  her 
life,  and,  as  misfortunes  never  come  singly,  shortly 
after  that  painful  loss,  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve, 
being  implicated  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  imperial 
throne,  was  compelled  to  leave  the  country.  Being 
a  native  of  Arcis  like  myself,  monsieur  le  marquis 
deigned  to  honor  me  with  his  friendship,  and,  at  the 
time  of  his  second  expatriation,  he  entrusted  the  care 
of  your  bringing  up  to  me;  I  accepted  the  trust,  I  will 
not  say  eagerly,  but  with  the  liveliest  gratitude." 

At  that  word,  the  marquis  held  out  his  hand  to 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  who  was  sitting  within  reach, 
and,  after  a  silent  grasp,  which  did  not  seem  to  me, 
by  the  way,  to  affect  them  tremendously,  Jacques 
Bricheteau  continued: 

"The  machinery  of  mysterious  precautions  with 
which  I  strove  to  encompass  the  commission  I  had 
undertaken  was  due  to  several  reasons,  and  I  can 
say  that  you  have,  in  a  certain  sense,  felt  the 
rebound  of  all  the  governments  that  have  succeeded 
one  another  in  France  since  your  birth.  Under  the 
Empire  I  was  afraid  that  a  government  which  had 
the  reputation  of  not  being  indulgent  to  the  aggres- 
sions that  might  be  directed  against  it  might  visit 
your  father's  offences  upon  you,  and  that  was  how 
the  idea  of  arranging  a  sort  of  anonymous  existence 
for  you  first  took  shape  in  my  mind.  Under  the 
Restoration,  I  had  occasion  to  dread  enemies  of 
another  sort:  the  Sallenauve  family,  which  has  no 


324  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

other  representative  to-day  than  Monsieur  le  Marquis 
here,  was  then  all-powerful.  They  had  got  wind  of 
your  birth,  and  they  did  not  fail  to  remark  that  the 
author  of  your  being  had  taken  the  precaution  not 
to  acknowledge  you,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
leave  you  the  whole  of  his  fortune,  a  portion  of 
which  the  law  would  have  denied  you  as  a  natural 
child.  The  obscurity  in  which  I  had  thus  far  kept 
you  seemed  to  me  the  best  protection  against 
the  persecutions  of  covetous  kindred;  and  certain 
suspicious  manoeuvres  from  that  direction,  re- 
newed several  times  in  my  neighborhood,  proved 
the  accuracy  of  my  anticipations.  Lastly,  under 
the  government  of  July,  I  was  afraid  of  myself  in 
your  behalf.  I  viewed  with  profound  regret  the 
establishment  of  the  new  order  of  things,  and,  as 
one  is  prone  to  do  under  all  governments  with  which 
one  is  not  in  sympathy,  not  believing  in  its  duration, 
1  allowed  myself  to  be  drawn  into  some  actively 
hostile  enterprises,  which  brought  me  to  the  notice 
of  the  police." 

At  that  point  the  recollection  of  the  diametrically 
opposite  suspicion  under  which  Jacques  Bricheteau 
had  fallen  at  the  Cafe  des  Arts,  caused  a  smile  to 
pass  over  my  face,  whereupon  the  chancellor  paused, 
and  asked  with  very  marked  gravity: 

"Is  the  explanation  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
offer  you  so  unfortunate  as  to  seem  improbable  to 
you?" 

When  I  had  told  him  the  cause  of  my  facial 
distortion,  he  continued: 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  325 

"That  waiter  was  not  altogether  mistaken,  for  I 
have  been  employed  for  many  years  at  the  pre- 
fecture of  police,  in  the  health  department,  but  I  do 
not  undertake  anything  in  the  nature  of  espionage, 
on  the  other  hand  I  have  more  than  once  come  very 
near  being  the  victim  of  it.  Now,  to  return  to  the 
secrecy  with  which  I  continued  to  surround  our 
connection,  although  I  did  not  apprehend  downright 
persecution  for  you  as  the  result  of  that  relation, 
should  it  become  known,  it  seemed  to  me  that  it 
might,  under  those  circumstances,  injure  your 
career,  'Sculptors,'  I  said  to  myself,  'cannot  live 
without  the  support  of  the  government;  I  may  per- 
haps be  the  cause  of  preventing  his  procuring 
orders.'  I  ought  to  say,  further,  that  at  the  time 
when  1  informed  you  that  your  allowance  would  no 
longer  be  paid,  I  had  lost  all  trace  of  monsieur  le 
marquis  for  several  years.  Of  what  use  was  it  to 
divulge  to  you  the  secret  of  a  past  which  no  longer 
seemed  to  promise  a  brilliant  future?  I  resolved 
therefore  to  leave  you  in  your  entire  ignorance,  and 
busied  myself  inventing  a  fable  which,  while  allaying 
your  curiosity,  would  relieve  me  from  the  depriva- 
tion I  had  long  imposed  upon  myself  by  avoiding  up 
to  that  time  all  direct  communication  with  you." 

"The  man  whom  you  employed  to  represent 
you,"  I  interposed,  "may  have  been  wisely  selected 
from  the  standpoint  of  mystery,  but  you  will  agree 
that  he  was  not  an  attractive  object  personally." 

"Poor  Gorenflot!"  replied  the  organist  with  a 
laugh,  "he  is  one  of  the  bell-ringers  of  the  parish 


326  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

church  and  the  man  who  blows  the  organ  for  me.  I 
don't  know  whether  the  author  of  Notre- Dame  de 
Paris  knew  of  him  when  he  invented  his  Quasi- 
modo." 

During  that  parenthetical  remark  a  most  absurd 
noise  assailed  our  ears:  a  very  pronounced  snore 
from  my  father  gave  us  to  understand  either  that 
he  took  no  great  interest  in  the  explanations 
furnished  in  his  name,  or  that  he  considered  his 
proxy  somewhat  prolix.  I  cannot  say  whether  the 
self-esteem  of  the  insulted  orator  aroused  Jacques 
Bricheteau  to  that  pitch,  but  he  rose  impatiently 
and  shook  the  sleeper  roughly  by  the  arm,  crying: 

"Well,  well,  marquis!  if  you  sleep  like  this  in 
the  council  of  ministers,  that  must  be  a  well-governed 
country  of  yours!" 

Monsieur  de  Sallenauve  opened  his  eyes,  shook 
himself,  then  said,  addressing  himself  to  me: 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  monsieur  le  comte,  but  I 
traveled  by  post  ten  nights,  without  stopping,  in 
order  to  be  here  at  the  time  you  were  told  to  arrive; 
and  although  I  slept  in  a  bed  last  night,  I  feel  a  little 
fatigued  still." 

With  that  he  rose,  took  a  generous  pinch  of  snuff 
and  began  to  walk  up  and  down  the  room,  while 
Jacques  Bricheteau  continued  as  follows: 

"A  little  more  than  a  year  ago,  I  received  at  last 
a  letter  from  your  father;  he  explained  his  long 
silence,  set  forth  his  plans  for  you  and  the  necessity 
of  his  maintaining  the  strictest  incognito,  so  far  as  you 
were  concerned,  perhaps,  for  several  years  more. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  327 

It  was  just  about  that  time  that  chance  threw  you 
in  my  way;  then  I  found  that  you  were  all  ready 
to  resort  to  insane  methods  to  fathom  a  secret  whose 
existence  had  become  manifest  to  you." 

"You  change  your  residence  quickly,"  I  said, 
smiling  at  the  ex-dweller  on  Quai  de  Bethune. 

"1  do  better  than  that:  being  terribly  disturbed  at 
the  thought  that  at  the  very  moment  that  monsieur  le 
marquis  declared  that  continued  secrecy  was  neces- 
sary, you  had,  in  spite  of  my  precautions,  pene- 
trated the  darkness  with  which  I  had  so  cunningly 
encompassed  you — " 

"You  started  for  Stockholm?" 

"No:  for  your  father's  residence,  and  at  Stock- 
holm I  mailed  the  letter  that  he  gave  me  for 
you." 

"But  I  don't  quite  understand — " 

"Nothing  can  be  easier  to  understand,  however," 
said  the  marquis  in  a  knowing  tone;  "I  don't  live  in 
Sweden,  and  we  wanted  to  throw  you  off  the 
scent." 

"Do  you  wish  to  continue  in  my  place?"  said 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  apparently  little  inclined  to 
allow  himself  to  be  taken  from  the  floor,  where,  as 
you  may  have  noticed,  he  acquits  himself  with 
elegance  and  fluency. 

"No,  no,  go  on,"  said  the  marquis,  "you  are 
doing  beautifully." 

"The  presence  of  monsieur  le  marquis,"  said 
Bricheteau,  "will  not  result,  I  ought  perhaps  to  tell 
you,   in  putting  an   end    immediately   to  all   the 


328  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

mystery  in  which  his  relations  with  you  have  here- 
tofore been  involved.  Out  of  regard  for  his  own 
future  as  well  as  yours,  he  deems  it  proper  to  leave 
you  in  ignorance  for  some  time  to  come  of  the 
identity  of  the  country  in  whose  government  he 
hopes  that  you  will  some  day  take  your  seat  by  his 
side,  as  well  as  of  some  other  details  of  his  life. 
Indeed,  his  presence  here  to-day  is  due  especially 
to  his  desire  to  avoid  further  explanations  and  to 
request  your  curiosity  to  grant  him  a  new  lease. 
As  I  had  persuaded  myself  that  your  equivocal 
family  position  was  of  a  nature  to  cause  you  some 
mortification  at  least,  if  not  to  place  genuine  obstacles 
in  your  way  in  the  political  career  upon  which  you 
are  about  to  enter,  your  father,  acting  upon  my 
observations  on  that  subject  in  one  of  my  letters, 
determined  to  hasten  the  moment  of  the  formal 
legal  acknowledgment  which  the  extinction  of  his 
whole  family  makes  most  desirable  for  you;  and  he 
has  come  from  the  distant  country  where  his  home 
now  is,  to  take  the  necessary  steps.  But  the 
acknowledgment  of  a  natural  child  is  a  solemn  act 
which  the  law  has  surrounded  with  minute  precau- 
tions. There  must  be  an  authentic  acknowledg- 
ment in  writing,  executed  before  a  notary,  and, 
even  if  a  special  power  of  attorney  would  be  a  legal 
substitute  for  the  personal  assent  of  the  father, 
monsieur  le  marquis  soon  reflected  that  the  inevitable 
publicity  attending  the  authentication  of  such  a 
power  would  result  in  noising  abroad,  not  only  here, 
but  in  the  country  where  he  has  taken  a  wife  and 


AT  THE  HOTEL   DE  LA   POSTE 


A  very  pronounced  snore  from  my  father  gave  us 
to  understand  either  that  he  took  no  great  interest  in 
the  explanations  furnished  in  his  name,  or  that  he 
considered  his  proxy  somewhat  prolix.  I  cannot  say 
whether  the  self-esteem  of  the  insulted  orator  aroused 
Jacques  Bricheteau  to  that  pitch,  but  he  rose  im- 
patiently and  shook  the  sleeper  roughly  by  the  arm, 
crying : 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  329 

become  naturalized,  so  to  speak,  the  secret  of  his 
identity,  which  he  is  desirous  to  conceal  for  some 
time  to  come.  Thereupon  he  made  up  his  mind  at 
once:  finding  a  way  to  escape  for  a  few  weeks,  he 
traveled  to  France  with  all  speed,  took  me  by  sur- 
prise and  appointed  a  meeting  with  you  here.  But 
he  feared  that  the  considerable  sum  of  money 
intended  to  ensure  your  success  in  the  election 
would  incur  some  risk  in  the  long  and  rapid  journey 
he  was  about  to  take;  so  he  forwarded  it  through 
the  medium  of  bankers,  requiring  that  it  should  be 
payable  on  a  certain  day.  That  is  why,  on  your 
arrival  here,  I  asked  you  a  question  that  may  have 
surprised  you.  Now,  I  ask  you  another  question, 
and  this  is  of  more  importance:  Do  you  consent  to 
take  Monsieur  de  Sallenauve's  name  and  to  be 
acknowledged  as  his  son?" 

**I  am  no  lawyer,"  I  replied,  "but  I  should  suppose 
that  it  would  not  lie  with  me  to  decline  the  proposed 
acknowledgment,  assuming  even  that  I  did  not  ieel 
deeply  honored  thereby." 

"Excuse  me,"  rejoined  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "you 
might  be  the  son  of  an  undesirable  father,  and  con- 
sequently be  interested  in  contesting  his  paternity, 
and,  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  this  case, 
you  could  probably  argue  successfully  against  the 
favor  proposed  to  be  conferred  upon  you.  I  ought 
to  tell  you,  furthermore, — and  in  speaking  thus  I 
am  sure  that  I  express  the  intentions  of  monsieur 
your  father, — if  you  should  conclude  that  a  man 
who  has  already  put  out  half  a  million  in  the  interest 


330  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

of  your  election  is  not  a  suitable  father,  we  should 
leave  you  entirely  free,  and  should  not  insist  in  the 
least." 

"Exactly,  exactly,"  assented  Monsieur  de  Salle- 
nauve,  uttering  the  words  with  an  abrupt  enunciation 
and  in  an  uncertain  tone,  characteristic  of  the 
remains  of  the  old  aristocracy. 

Politeness,  if  nothing  else,  compelled  me  to  say 
that  I  accepted  most  heartily,  the  proffered  paternity; 
to  the  few  words  which  I  uttered  to  that  purport 
Jacques  Bricheteau  replied: 

"We  do  not  propose,  by  the  way,  to  make  you 
buy  a  pig  in  a  poke.  Not  so  much  to  induce  a 
confidence  which  he  believes  that  he  has  now 
obtained,  as  to  put  you  in  a  way  to  know  the  history 
of  the  family  whose  name  you  are  to  bear,  monsieur 
le  marquis  will  place  before  you  all  the  deeds  and 
documents  in  his  possession;  furthermore,  although 
he  left  the  country  many  years  ago,  he  will  be  able 
to  establish  his  identity  by  the  testimony  of  several 
of  his  contemporaries  who  are  still  alive,  all  of  which 
cannot  fail  to  result  to  the  advantage  of  the 
act  of  acknowledgment.  For  example,  among  the 
respectable  persons  by  whom  he  has  already  been 
recognized,  I  may  mention  the  worshipful  superior 
of  the  community  of  Ursuline  nuns.  Mother  Marie 
des  Anges,  for  whom,  let  me  say,  in  passing,  you 
have  executed  a  masterpiece." 

"Yes,  yes,  on  my  word,  it's  a  pretty  bit  of  work," 
said  the  marquis,  "and  if  you're  a  politician  of  that 
stamp!" — 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  33 1 

"Well,  marquis,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  who 
seemed  to  lead  him  a  little,  "are  you  ready  to 
proceed  with  our  young  friend,  to  verify  the  family 
papers?" 

"Oh!  that  is  unnecessary,"  I  replied. 

To  tell  the  truth  it  did  not  seem  to  me  that,  by 
declining  to  enter  into  that  examination,  I  pledged 
my  faith  to  any  great  extent;  for  what  do  papers 
amount  to  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  may  have 
forged  them  or  stolen  them? 

But  my  father  would  not  let  me  off,  and  for  more 
than  two  hours  he  exhibited  parchments,  genealog- 
ical trees,  contracts,  letters-patent,  from  all  of 
which  it  results  that  the  Sallenauve  family  is,  next 
to  the  Cinq-Cygnes,  the  oldest  family  in  Cham- 
pagne in  general  and  in  the  department  of  the  Aube 
in  particular.  I  should  add  that  the  exhibition  of  all 
these  archives  was  accompanied  by  an  infinite 
number  of  oral  details,  which  placed  the  identity  of 
the  last  Marquis  de  Sallenauve  almost  beyond  ques- 
tion. Upon  every  other  subject  my  father  is 
taciturn  enough;  he  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be 
extraordinarily  frank,  and  he  is  very  ready  to  yield 
the  floor  to  his  chancellor:  but,  when  he  came  to  his 
parchments,  he  was  fairly  bewildering  with  his 
anecdotes,  his  souvenirs  and  his  heraldic  lore;  in 
short,  he  was  the  perfect  type  of  the  old  gentleman 
with  little  or  no  information  on  any  useful  subject, 
but  as  erudite  as  a  Benedictine  monk  when  upon 
matters  connected  with  his  family.  The  session 
would  have  lasted  until  now,  I  believe,  except  for 


332  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

the  intervention  of  Jacques  Briclieteau;  when  he 
saw  that  the  marquis  was  on  the  point  of  supple- 
menting his  vast  oral  commentaries  by  reading  a 
voluminous  memorial  written  for  the  purpose  of 
refuting  a  chapter  in  the  Historiettes  of  Tallemant 
des  Reaux  which  does  not  redound  to  the  greater 
glory  of  the  Sallenauves,  the  judicious  organist 
observed  that  it  was  time  to  dine,  if  we  wished  to 
be  at  Maitre  Achille  Pigoult's  office  promptly  at 
seven  o'clock,  for  which  hour  an  appointment  had 
been  made.  We  dined  therefore,  not  at  the  table 
d'hSte,  but  in  our  apartments,  and  there  was  nothing 
worthy  of  remark  about  the  repast,  except  its 
excessive  length,  due  to  the  silent  meditation  and 
the  moderation  with  which  the  marquis  masticates 
his  food  as  a  result  of  the  loss  of  all  his  teeth.  At 
seven  o'clock  we  were  at  Maitre  Achille  Pigoult's. 
— But  it  is  nearly  two  o'clock  A.  M.  and  I  am  dead 
with  sleep:  I  will  postpone  until  to-morrow,  there- 
fore, the  continuation  of  this  letter,  and  a  circum- 
stantial narrative  of  what  took  place  in  the  office  of 
the  royal  notary — assuming  that  I  shall  have  leisure 
then.  You  know  the  gross  result,  by  the  way,  like 
a  man  who  turns  over  to  the  last  page  of  a  novel  to 
see  if  Evelina  marries  Arthur,  and  you  can  give  me 
credit  for  the  details.  When  I  go  to  bed,  a  moment 
hence,  I  shall  say  to  myself:  "Good-night,  Monsieur 
de  Sallenauve!"  Do  you  know,  that  devil  of  a 
Bricheteau  didn't  show  much  tact  in  blanketing  me 
with  that  name  of  Dorlange:  I  seemed  like  the  hero 
of  a  novel  of  the  time  of  the  Empire,  or  one  of  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  333 

provincial  tenors  who  wait  for  an  engagement  under 
tiie  leafless  trees  of  the  Palais-Royal.  You  don't 
take  it  ill  of  me,  do  you,  that  1  leave  you  for  my 
bed,  where  I  propose  to  fall  asleep  to  the  gentle 
murmur  of  the  Aube?  From  my  room,  amid  the 
indescribable  silence  of  the  night,  in  a  small  provin- 
cial town,  I  hear  the  sad  plashing  of  its  waves. 

May  4th,  5  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
I  had  counted  upon  slumber  embellished  by 
sweetest  dreams;  I  slept  no  more  than  an  hour,  and 
I  awoke  with  a  hideous  thought  gnawing  at  my 
heart;  but  before  I  transmit  it  to  you,  for  perhaps  it 
is  devoid  of  common-sense,  let  me  tell  you  what 
happened  last  night  at  the  notary's;  it  may  be  that 
certain  details  of  that  scene  have  some  connection 
with  the  phantasmagorical  commotion  that  has  taken 
place  in  my  mind.  After  Maitre  Pigoult's  servant, 
a  pure-blooded  Champenois,  had  led  us  through  an 
office  of  most  ancient  and  venerable  aspect,  where 
there  were  no  clerks  doing  evening  work  as  they  do 
in  Paris,  the  girl  ushered  us  into  the  master's  study, 
a  large  room,  cold  and  damp,  and  very  imperfectly 
lighted  by  two  tallow  candles  on  the  desk.  Although 
a  sharp  north  wind  was  blowing  out  of  doors,  on 
the  faith  of  the  month  of  May  as  sung  by  the  poets 
and  of  the  fact  that  spring  is  legally  declared  to 
have  come  at  that  time  of  year,  there  was  no  fire 
lighted;  but  all  the  preparations  had  been  made  for 
a  cheerful  blaze  on  the  hearth.  Maitre  Achille 
Pigoult,  a  meagre  little  man,  horribly  pock-marked 


334  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and  afflicted  with  green  spectacles,  over  which, 
however,  he  flashes  a  remarkably  keen  and  intelli- 
gent glance,  asked  us  if  it  were  warm  enough  in  the 
room.  Upon  our  reply  in  the  affirmative,  which  he 
evidently  considered  to  be  dictated  in  some  measure 
by  courtesy,  he  had  already  carried  out  his  incen- 
diary purpose  so  far  as  to  strike  a  match,  when, 
from  one  of  the  darkest  corners  of  the  room,  a 
cracked  and  trembling  voice,  whose  proprietor  we 
had  not  before  noticed,  intervened  to  remonstrate 
against  such  prodigality. 

"No,  no,  Achille,  don't  light  the  fire!"  cried  the 
old  man;  "there  are  five  of  us  and  the  candles  give 
out  a  great  deal  of  heat,  and  it  will  be  so  hot  soon 
we  can't  stand  it." 

The  words  of  the  warm-blooded  Nestor  were 
followed  by  this  exclamation  from  the  marquis: 

"Why,  that  is  the  excellent  Monsieur  Pigoult, 
formerly  justice  of  the  peace!" 

Thus  identified,  the  old  man  rose  and  went  to  my 
father,  whom  he  scrutinized  with  interest. 

"Parbleu!"  he  said,  "I  recognize  you  too  as  a 
Champenois  of  the  old  stock,  and  Achille  did  not  lie 
to  me  when  he  said  I  was  going  to  see  two  persons 
of  my  acquaintance.  You,"  he  added,  addressing 
the  organist,  "you  are  little  Bricheteau,  the  nephew 
of  our  good  superior.  Mother  Marie  des  Anges;  but 
this  tall,  thin  fellow,  with  his  duke  and  peer's  face, 
I  can't  fit  a  name  to  him;  but  you  mustn't  be  too 
hard  on  my  memory;  after  eighty-six  years'  use,  it 
may  well  be  a  little  rusty." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  335 

"Come,  grandfather,"  then  said  Achille  Pigoult, 
**search  your  memory,  and  you,  gentlemen,  don't 
speak  or  make  a  gesture,  for  it  is  a  question  of 
conscience  with  me.  I  haven't  the  honor  of  knowing 
the  client  for  whom  I  am  about  to  act,  and,  in  order 
that  everything  may  be  regular,  it  is  essential  that 
his  identity  be  proved  to  my  satisfaction.  The 
ordinance  of  Louis  XII.,  promulgated  in  1498,  and 
that  of  Francois  I.,  in  renewal  thereof,  in  1535,  made 
this  precaution  obligatory  upon  garde-note  notaries, 
to  avoid  the  substitution  of  persons  in  docu- 
ments. That  provision  of  law  is  too  well-founded 
in  good  sense  to  have  been  abrogated  by  time, 
and  I  am  very  sure  that  I  myself  should  not  have 
the  slightest  confidence  in  the  validity  of  a  deed, 
as  to  which  it  might  be  proved  that  that  precaution 
was  neglected." 

While  his  grandson  was  speaking,  old  Pigoult  had 
put  his  memory  to  the  torture.  My  father  luckily 
has  a  nervous  affection  of  the  facial  muscles  which, 
under  the  fixed  scrutiny  of  his  certifier,  could  not  fail 
to  become  aggravated.  By  the  aid  of  that  symbol, 
working  at  full  pressure,  the  former  justice  of  the 
peace  at  last  recognized  his  man. 

"Ah!  parbleu!  I  have  it!"  he  cried,  "monsieur  is 
the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  who  used  to  be  called 
the  Grimacier,  and  who  would  be  the  owner  of  the 
chateau  of  Arcis  to-day,  if  he  had  not  emigrated, 
like  all  the  other  fools,  instead  of  marrying  his  pretty 
cousin,  who  would  have  brought  it  to  him  as  her 
dowry." 


336  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

"Still  rather  sans-culotte,  apparently,"  rejoined 
the  marquis  with  a  laugh. 

"Messieurs,"  interposed  the  notary  with  much 
solemnity,  "the  test  that  I  arranged  is  to  my  mind 
decisive.  That  test,  the  muniments  of  title  which 
monsieur  le  marquis  was  pleased  to  exhibit  to  me 
and  which  he  leaves  on  deposit  in  my  office,  and,  in 
addition,  the  certificate  of  his  identity  forwarded  to 
me  by  Mother  Marie  des  Anges,  who  is  prevented 
by  the  rules  of  her  institution  from  coming  to  my 
office  to  testify,  certainly  put  us  in  a  position  to 
execute  the  documents  which  I  have  here,  already 
drawn  up.  The  presence  of  two  witnesses  is  required 
by  one  of  them.  Here  are  Monsieur  Bricheteau  on 
the  one  hand,  my  grandfather  on  the  other,  if  satis- 
factory to  you;  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  an  honor  to 
which  he  is  rightfully  entitled,  for  we  might  say  that 
he  has  earned  it  at  the  point  of  his  memory." 

"Well,  messieurs,  let  us  take  our  places,"  said 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  with  great  eagerness. 

The  notary  seated  himself  at  his  desk;  we  formed 
a  circle  about  him,  and  the  reading  of  one  of  the 
documents  began.  It  was  a  formal  acknowledgment 
by  Frangois-Henri-Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis  de 
Sallenauve,  of  myself  as  his  son;  but  a  difficulty 
arose  in  the  course  of  the  reading.  Documents 
executed  before  a  notary  are  null  and  void  unless 
the  domicile  of  the  contracting  parties  is  stated. 
Now  what  was  my  father's  domicile?  It  had  been 
left  blank  by  the  notary,  who  desired  to  fill  in  the 
gap  before  proceeding. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  337 

"As  to  domicile,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "monsieur 
le  marquis  seems  to  have  none  in  France,  as  he  does 
not  live  here,  and  has  owned  no  real  estate  here  for 
many  years." 

"That  is  quite  true,"  said  the  marquis  in  a  more 
solemn  tone,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  than  the  remark 
called  for;  "in  France,  1  am  a  vagabond." 

"Oho!"  rejoined  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "vaga- 
bonds like  you,  who  can  present  their  sons  off-hand 
with  enough  money  to  buy  chateaux,  do  not  strike 
me  as  a  sort  of  beggars  to  be  greatly  pitied.  The 
remark  is  true,  however,  not  only  as  to  France,  but 
as  to  foreign  lands  as  well,  for  with  your  everlasting 
mania  for  traveling  about,  it  doesn't  seem  to  me  a 
very  easy  matter  to  assign  you  a  domicile." 

"Look  you,"  said  Achille  Pigoult,  "we  won't  be 
balked  by  such  a  small  matter.  From  this  time," 
he  continued,  "monsieur,"  indicating  me,  "is  pro- 
prietor of  the  chateau  of  Arcis,  for  an  agreement  to 
sell  is  as  good  as  a  sale,  as  soon  as  the  thing  sold 
and  the  price  are  agreed  upon  between  the  parties. 
Now,  what  is  more  natural  than  that  the  father's 
domicile  should  be  credited  to  one  of  the  estates 
belonging  to  his  son,  especially  when  that  estate  is 
a  part  of  the  estates  of  his  family,  restored  to  the 
family  by  means  of  a  purchase  effected  for  the  son's 
benefit,  but  paid  for  with  the  father's  funds;  when, 
furthermore,  the  father  was  born  in  the  province  in 
which  the  estate  in  question,  which  I  will  call  the 
domiciliary  estate,  is  located,  and  is  known  and 
recognized  there  by  some  of  the  leading  inhabitants, 
22 


338  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

whenever  it  suits  him  to  appear  there  in  the  intervals 
between  his  long  absences?" 

"That  is  right,"  said  old  Pigoult,  adopting  without 
hesitation  the  opinion  his  grandson  had  delivered 
with  the  animation  peculiar  to  men  of  business  who 
think  that  they  have  placed  their  hand  on  a  decisive 
argument. 

"Well,"  said  Jacques  Bricheteau,  "if  you  think 
it's  all  right—" 

"You  see  that  my  father,  an  old  practitioner, 
doesn't  hesitate  a  moment  to  agree  with  me. — We 
will  say  then,"  continued  the  notary,  taking  his 
pen:  'Francois-Henri-Pantaleon  Dumirail,  Marquis 
de  Sallenauve,  domiciled  with  Monsieur  Charles  de 
Sallenauve,  his  natural  son,  by  him  legally  acknowl- 
edged, at  the  place  called  the  chateau  of  Arcis, 
arrondissement  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  department  of  the 
Aube.'" 

The  rest  of  the  document  was  read  through,  and 
the  end  attained  without  further  impediment 

Then  ensued  a  decidedly  ridiculous  scene.  After 
the  documents  had  been  signed,  and  while  we  were 
still  standing: 

"Now,  Monsieur  le  Comte,"  said  Jacques  Briche- 
teau, "embrace  your  father." 

My  father  opened  his  arms  indifferently  enough, 
and  I  rushed  into  them  in  cold  blood,  rebuking  my- 
self for  not  being  more  deeply  moved  and  because 
the  voice  of  blood  did  not  sound  louder  in  my  heart. 
Were  this  coldness  and  lack  of  emotion  connected 
with  my  rapid  increase  of  fortune?     However  that 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  339 

may  be,  a  moment  later,  by  virtue  of  another 
document  to  which  we  listened,  I  became,  in  con- 
sideration of  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  francs,  the  owner  of  the  chateau  of  Arcis, 
a  large  building  of  attractive  aspect,  which,  as  I 
entered  the  town,  being  guided  no  more  truly  by 
the  instinct  of  the  landed  proprietor  than  by  the 
voice  of  blood,  I  had  noticed  in  the  distance,  domi- 
nating the  landscape  with  quite  a  feudal  air.  The 
electoral  importance  of  that  purchase,  if  I  had  had 
no  premonition  of  it,  would  have  been  disclosed  by 
a  few  words  that  the  notary  and  Jacques  Bricheteau 
exchanged.  According  to  the  habit  of  all  vendors, 
who  extol  the  merits  of  their  wares  even  after  they 
have  passed  out  of  their  hands,  Achille  Pigoult 
remarked: 

"You  can  flatter  yourself  that  you  have  bought 
that  estate  for  a  mere  song." 

"Nonsense!"  retorted  Jacques  Bricheteau;  "how 
long  have  you  had  it  on  your  hands?  Your  client 
would  have  let  anybody  else  have  it  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  francs;  but,  as  it's  family  prop- 
erty, you  have  made  us  pay  for  the  fitness  of  the 
thing.  It  will  cost  twenty  thousand  francs  to  make 
the  chateau  habitable;  the  estate  yields  barely  four 
thousand  francs  a  year;  so  that  we  don't  get  two 
and  a  half  per  cent  for  our  money,  deducting 
expenses." 

"What  have  you  to  complain  of.?"  rejoined 
Achille  Pigoult;  "you  are  going  to  furnish  employ- 
ment, you  will  spend  money  in  the  province,  and 


340  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

that's  not  a  bad  recommendation  for  a  candidate,  to 
start  with." 

"Ah!  we  will  discuss  the  electoral  question  to- 
morrow morning,"  said  Bricheteau,  "when  we  come 
to  pay  the  purchase-money  and  arrange  your  fees." 

Thereupon  the  party  broke  up  and  we  returned 
to  the  Hotel  de  la  Poste,  where,  after  bidding  my 
father  and  his  mouthpiece  good-night,  I  repaired  to 
my  room  to  talk  with  you.  Now  I  must  tell  you 
the  horrible  thought  that  has  banished  sleep  from 
my  eyes  and  caused  me  to  take  up  my  pen  once 
more;  although,  at  this  moment,  having  diverted 
my  mind  somewhat  by  writing  these  two  pages  to 
you,  the  evidence  doesn't  seem  so  strong  as  it  did 
a  moment  ago.  One  thing  that  is  certain  is  that 
there  is  something  prodigiously  romantic  in  all  that 
has  taken  place  in  my  life  for  the  past  year.  You 
will  tell  me  that  strange  adventures  seem  to  be  a 
logical  part  of  my  existence;  that  my  birth,  the 
chance  that  brought  us  together,  whose  lots  were 
so  strangely  similar,  my  relations  with  Marianina 
and  my  fair  housekeeper,  even  my  experience  with 
Madame  de  TEstorade,  seem  to  indicate  that  I  was 
born  under  a  most  adventurous  star  and  that  I  am 
undergoing  one  of  its  caprices  at  this  moment. 
Nothing  could  be  more  just  than  such  a  remark;  but 
suppose  that,  at  the  same  moment,  by  the  influence 
of  that  star,  I  were  involved,  unknown  to  myself, 
in  some  infernal  scheme  and  were  made  to  serve  as 
the  passive  instrument  thereof! — To  arrange  my 
ideas  in  some  order,  I  will  begin  with  this  half-million 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  341 

of  money  expended,  you  will  agree,  for  an  extremely 
nebulous  object:  to  enable  me  to  become  some  day 
the  possible  minister  of  some  imaginary  country  or 
other,  the  name  of  which  is  carefully  concealed 
from  me.  And  who  expends  these  fabulous  sums 
for  me?  A  father  fondly  attached  to  a  love-child? 
No,  but  a  father  who  manifests  the  utmost  indiffer- 
ence to  me,  who  falls  asleep  while  the  balance-sheet 
of  our  mutual  existence  is  being  drawn  off  before 
his  eyes;  for  whom,  on  my  side,  I  have  the  misfor- 
tune of  feeling  no  affection  and  whom,  to  speak 
frankly,  I  should  look  upon  as  a  perfect  idiot  of  an 
emigre,  were  it  not  for  the  filial  respect  and  venera- 
tion which  I  strive  to  entertain  for  him. — But  look 
you!  suppose  the  man  were  not  my  father,  were 
not  even  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  as  he  pretends 
to  be;  suppose  that,  like  the  ill-fated  Lucien  de 
Rubempre — see  Lost  Illusions  and  Splendors  and 
Miseries  of  Courtesans — whose  story  made  such  a 
terrible  sensation,  I  were  in  the  toils  of  some  serpent 
like  the  false  priest,  Carlos  Herrera,  and  in  danger 
of  such  a  terrible  awakening! — "What  probability 
is  there  of  such  a  thing?"  you  will  say:  "Carlos 
Herrera  had  an  interest  in  fascinating  Lucien  de 
Rubempre;  but  what  hold  could  anybody  have  over 
you,  a  man  of  high  principle,  who  have  never 
dreamed  of  luxurious  living,  who  have  marked  out 
for  yourself  a  life  of  thought  and  work, — and  why 
should  anyone  want  to  injure  you?" — 

Very  good.     But  is  it  any  more  clear  what  they 
seem  to  want  of  me?    Why  should  the  man  who 


342  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

acknowledges  me  as  his  son  conceal  his  place  of 
abode  from  me,  and  the  name  by  which  he  is  known 
in  that  mysterious  country  of  the  North  which  he 
is  supposed  to  govern?  Why  so  little  confidence  in 
connection  with  such  great  sacrifices  for  my  benefit? 
and  do  you  think  that  Jacques  Bricheteau,  for  all 
his  long  explanations,  has  sufficiently  justified  the 
mystery  in  which  he  has  shrouded  my  life  until 
to-day?  Why  that  dwarf ?  Why  his  impudent  denial 
of  his  own  identity  the  first  time  that  I  met  him? 
Why  that  frantic  change  of  residence? 

All  these  things,  my  dear  fellow,  rolling  about  in 
my  head,  and  complicated  by  the  five  hundred 
thousand  francs  which  I  received  at  Mongenod 
Frdres*,  seemed  to  give  consistency  to  a  strange  idea 
at  which  you  will  laugh  perhaps,  but,  which  would 
not  be  without  precedent  in  judicial  annals.  As  I 
told  you  just  now,  it  is  a  thought  that  suddenly 
invaded  me,  as  it  were,  and  for  that  very  reason 
assumed  in  my  mind  the  merit  of  an  instinct. 
Certain  it  is  that,  if  such  a  thought  had  occurred  to 
me  last  night,  I  would  rather  have  cut  off  my  hand 
than  sign  that  paper,  which  links  my  destiny 
henceforth  to  that  of  a  perfect  stranger,  whose 
future  may  be  as  dark  as  a  chapter  of  Dante's 
Inferno,  and  who  may  drag  me  with  him  into  its 
blackest  depths.  Well,  that  idea,  as  to  which  I 
keep  you  in  suspense,  unable  to  make  up  my  mind 
to  confide  it  to  you  is,  in  all  its  artless  nakedness, 
this:  I  am  afraid  of  being  made  involuntarily  the 
agent  of  one  of  the  associations  of  counterfeiters 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  343 

who,  in  order  to  put  their  false  coins  in  circulation, 
have  often  been  known,  in  the  annals  of  the  courts 
of  assize,  to  resort  to  combinations  and  schemes  as 
complicated  and  as  inextricable  as  that  in  which  I 
am  to-day  involved.  In  trials  of  that  sort  there  is 
always  much  going  and  coming  of  the  confederates; 
drafts  drawn  at  distant  places  on  the  bankers  of 
important  commercial  centres  and  capitals  such  as 
Paris,  Stockholm  and  Rotterdam.  Often  also  we 
hear  of  wretched  dupes  involved  in  their  schemes. 
Really,  do  you  not  notice,  in  the  mysterious  conduct 
of  this  Bricheteau,  a  sort  of  imitation  and  reflection 
of  all  the  manoeuvres  to  which  those  great  artists 
are  forced  to  resort,  executing  them  with  a  genius 
and  a  wealth  of  imagination  to  which  not  even 
novelists  attain? 

You  will  readily  understand  that  I  have  used  upon 
myself  all  the  arguments  calculated  to  discredit  my 
gloomy  presentiment,  and,  if  I  do  not  repeat  them 
to  you,  it  is  because  1  choose  to  let  them  come  from 
your  mouth,  and  thus  to  give  them  the  sanction  of 
an  authority  which  they  would  not  have  for  me  if  I 
had  myself  inspired  them.  One  thing  is  certain,  if 
I  am  not  mistaken,  and  that  is,  that  there  is  around 
me  a  dense,  unhealthy,  opaque  atmosphere,  in 
which  I  feel  a  lack  of  air,  and  as  if  I  could  hardly 
breathe.  However,  if  you  are  able  to  do  it,  reassure 
me,  persuade  me;  as  you  can  imagine,  I  ask  nothing 
better  than  to  be  shown  that  my  dream  is  false; 
but  in  any  event  I  propose  to  have  an  explanation 
with  my  two  men  not  later  than  to-morrow,  and. 


344  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

although  it  may  already  be  a  little  late,  to  obtain 
more  light  than  has  yet  been  vouchsafed  me. 

But  here's  another  story!  While  I  was  writing  I 
heard  horses  in  the  street.  Having  become  sus- 
picious, and  taking  everything  as  a  source  of 
grievous  anxiety,  I  opened  my  window,  and  saw  by 
the  early  morning  light,  a  post-chaise  all  harnessed 
standing  at  the  door  of  the  hotel,  with  the  postilion 
in  the  saddle,  and  Jacques  Bricheteau  talking  to 
some  person  inside,  whose  face  I  could  not  see,  as  it 
was  shaded  by  the  vizor  of  a  traveling  cap.  Making 
up  my  mind  at  once,  I  ran  rapidly  down;  but  before 
I  reached  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  I  heard  the  dull 
rumbling  of  the  carriage  and  the  repeated  cracking  of 
the  whip  as  it  flew  through  the  air,  a  sort  of  postil- 
ion's Chant  du  depart.  At  the  foot  of  the  staircase 
I  found  myself  face  to  face  with  Jacques  Bricheteau. 

"What!  up  already,  my  dear  pupil?"  he  said, 
without  a  sign  of  embarrassment  and  in  the  most 
natural  manner. 

**To  be  sure;  it  was  the  least  I  could  do,  to  bid 
my  excellent  father  good-bye." 

"He  preferred  not,"  replied  the  damned  musician 
with  a  gravity  and  phlegm  that  made  me  long  to 
strike  him,  "he  dreaded  the  emotion  of  a  farewell 
interview." 

"But  he  must  be  in  a  terrible  hurry,  that  he  could 
not  give  even  one  day  to  his  ardent  new  paternity." 

"What  do  you  expect!  he's  an  original;  he  has 
done  what  he  came  to  do,  and  to  his  mind  there  is 
no  further  reason  for  him  to  remain." 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  345 

"Ah!  I  understand,  the  important  functions  that 
he  performs  in  that  northern  court!" 

It  was  impossible  to  mistake  the  profoundly 
ironical  accent  with  which  I  uttered  that  last 
sentence. 

"Hitherto,"  said  Bricheteau,  "you  have  shown 
more  faith." 

"True,  but  I  confess  that  my  faith  is  beginning  to 
grow  restive  under  the  weight  of  the  mysteries 
which  are  heaped  upon  it,  without  pity  or  respite." 

"When  I  see  you,  at  a  moment  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  your  future,  giving  way  to  doubts 
which  the  whole  course  of  treatment  to  which  you 
have  been  subjected  for  so  many  years  most 
assuredly  justifies,  I  should  be  in  despair,"  answered 
Jacques  Bricheteau,  "if  I  had  nothing  but  arguments 
or  statements  of  my  own  with  which  to  combat 
them.  But  you  remember  that  old  Pigoult  last 
night  mentioned  an  aunt  of  mine  here  in  the 
province,  where,  I  trust,  you  will  soon  discover  that 
she  occupies  a  position  of  some  weight.  1  may  add 
that  the  sacred  character  of  her  office  imparts  to  her 
word  unquestionable  authority.  In  any  event  I  had 
arranged  that  we  should  see  her  at  some  time  during 
the  day;  but  just  give  me  time  to  shave  and  we 
will  go  at  once,  early  as  it  is,  to  the  Ursuline 
convent.  There  you  can  question  Mother  Marie 
des  Anges,  who  has  the  reputation  of  a  saint 
throughout  the  department  of  the  Aube,  and  I  am 
confident  that  after  our  interview  with  her,  no  cloud 
will  remain  between  us." 


346  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

While  the  devil  of  a  man  was  speaking,  there  was 
upon  his  face  an  expression  of  such  absolute  probity 
and  benevolence;  his  language,  always  calm,  refined 
and  self-controlled,  found  its  way  so  irresistibly  into 
his  hearer's  heart,  that  I  felt  the  flood  of  my  wrath 
recede  and  my  sense  of  security  gather  new 
strength.  In  fact,  his  suggestion  is  unanswerable; 
the  convent  of  Ursuline  nuns  cannot  be  a  counter- 
feiter's workshop,  deuce  take  it!  and  if  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges  becomes  surety  to  me  for  my 
father,  as  it  seems  that  she  has  already  done  to  the 
notary,  I  should  be  mad  to  persist  in  my  doubts. 

"Very  well,"  1  said  to  Bricheteau,  "I  will  go  up 
and  get  my  hat  and  wait  for  you  on  the  bank  of  the 
river." 

"Do  so,  and  watch  the  hotel  door,  to  make  sure 
that  I  don't  move  away  in  a  hurry,  as  I  did  from 
Quai  de  Bethune!" 

No  one  can  be  more  intelligent  than  this  man;  he 
seems  to  divine  your  thoughts.  I  was  ashamed  of 
my  last  suspicion,  and  I  told  him  that,  upon  reflec- 
tion, I  preferred  to  finish  a  letter  while  I  was 
waiting  for  him.  This  is  the  one,  my  dear  friend, 
and  I  am  obliged  to  close  it  and  send  it  to  the  post 
at  once  if  I  want  it  to  go.  I  postpone  to  another 
day  the  story  of  our  visit  to  the  convent. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  347 

MARIE-GASTON  TO  MADAME  LA  COMTESSE  DE 
L'ESTORADE 

Arcis-sur-Aube,  May  6,  1839. 
Madame, 

In  any  case  I  should  have  been  glad  to  take 
advantage  of  the  request  you  were  good  enough  to 
make,  that  I  should  write  you  during  my  stay  here; 
but  you  will  never  know  how  truly  charitable  it  is 
of  you  to  grant  me  that  inestimable  privilege.  Were 
it  not  for  you,  and  for  the  honor  which  I  shall  have  of 
talking  to  you  thus  from  time  to  time,  what  would 
become  of  me,  abandoned  to  the  habitual  domination 
of  my  sad  thoughts,  in  a  town  which  has  neither 
society,  nor  business,  nor  objects  of  interest,  nor 
suburbs,  and  where  all  intellectual  activity  is  con- 
fined to  the  preparation  of  corned  pork,  and  the 
manufacture  of  soft  soap  and  cotton  stockings  and 
caps?  Dorlange — whom  I  shall  not  always  call  by 
that  name,  for  a  reason  which  you  will  soon  know — 
is  so  absorbed  by  his  electoral  schemes  that  I  hardly 
catch  a  glimpse  of  him.  I  have  told  you,  madame, 
that  I  decided  to  join  my  friend  because  one  of  his 
letters,  in  which  he  told  me  of  a  great  revolution 
that  had  come  to  pass  in  his  life,  seemed  to  me  to 
denote  more  or  less  mental  disturbance.  To-day  it 
is  possible  for  me  to  be  more  explicit.  Dorlange 
knows  who  his  father  is,  at  last:  he  is  the  natural 
son  of  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  the  last  surviving 
scion  of  one  of  the  best  families  of  Champagne. 


348  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Without  vouchsafing  any  explanation  of  his  reasons 
for  keeping  his  son's  birth  so  secret,  the  marquis 
has  legally  acknowledged  him.  At  the  same  time, 
he  purchased  for  him  an  estate  which  had  long  since 
passed  out  of  the  possession  of  the  Sallenauve 
family,  and  which  will  in  this  way  be  connected 
with  the  name  once  more.  The  estate  in  question 
is  situated  here  in  Arcis,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  think 
therefore  that  its  possession  will  not  be  without  a 
useful  bearing  on  the  project  of  election  to  the 
Chamber  which  is  on  the  carpet  to-day.  This 
project  dates  farther  back  than  we  thought  and  did 
not  have  its  birth  in  Dorlange's  caprice. 

A  year  ago  the  marquis  began  to  pave  the  way 
for  it  by  sending  his  son  a  considerable  sum  of 
money,  so  that  he  might  render  himself  eligible  to 
the  Chamber  by  the  purchase  of  an  estate,  and  it 
is  for  the  same  purpose  of  facilitating  the  candi- 
date's entrance  upon  a  political  career  that  he  has 
now  given  him  a  social  status  as  a  citizen  and  made 
him  the  owner  of  a  second  estate.  The  real  object 
of  all  these  sacrifices  has  not  as  yet  been  clearly  ex- 
plained to  Charles  de  Sallenauve  by  the  marquis  his 
father,  and  it  was  on  the  subject  of  that  portion  of 
his  horizon  which  is  still  shrouded  in  mist  that  the 
poor  fellow  conceived  some  genuine  apprehensions, 
which  my  friendship  earnestly  impelled  me  to  seek 
to  allay.  To  cap  the  climax,  the  marquis  seems  to 
to  be  as  odd  as  he  is  opulent,  for,  instead  of  remain- 
ing at  Arcis,  where  his  presence  and  his  name  might 
have  contributed  to  the  desired  result  of  the  election, 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  349 

on  the  very  next  day  to  that  on  which  the  formal 
acknowledgment  of  his  son  was  consummated,  he 
started  furtively  for  some  distant  country  where  he 
claims  to  have  urgent  business  interests,  and  did  not 
even  give  his  son  time  to  bid  him  farewell.  Such 
coldness  on  his  part  cast  a  blight  on  Charles's  joy, 
but  we  must  take  fathers  as  they  come,  for  Dor- 
lange  and  I  are  both  living  proofs  of  the  fact  that  a 
man  cannot  have  one  for  the  wishing.  Another 
peculiar  freak  on  our  gentleman's  part  is  his  choice, 
as  his  son's  principal  sponsor,  of  an  old  Ursuline 
nun,  with  whom  he  made  a  bargain,  with  the  execu- 
tion of  which,  as  it  turned  out  later,  you  were  not 
wholly  unconnected.  Yes,  madame,  that  Sainte 
Ursule,  for  which  you  posed  at  a  distance  and  unwit- 
tingly, is  destined,  according  to  all  appearances,  to 
have  considerable  influence  upon  our  friend's  elec- 
tion. 

This  is  what  has  happened.  For  many  years 
Mother  Marie  des  Anges,  superior  of  the  Ursuline 
convent  of  Arcis-sur-Aube,  dreamed  of  erecting  an 
image  of  her  patron  saint  in  the  chapel  of  her  com- 
munity. But  this  lady,  being  a  person  of  brains 
and  good  taste,  would  not  hear  of  one  of  the  brum- 
magem saints  that  can  be  bought  ready-made  of 
dealers  in  church  ornaments;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  she  would  never  have  ceased  to  reproach 
herself  for  robbing  her  poor  of  the  considerable  sum 
required  to  pay  for  a  work  of  art  made  to  order. 
The  holy  woman  has  a  nephew  who  is  an  organist 
in  Paris,  and  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  while  he 


350  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

was  flying  around  the  world,  had  entrusted  his  son 
to  the  care  of  that  organist,  who  had  taken  especial 
pains,  for  a  very  long  time,  to  keep  the  poor  child 
absolutely  ignorant  of  his  origin.  When  there  was 
a  suggestion  of  electing  Sallenauve  to  the  Chamber, 
they  naturally  thought  of  the  arrondissement  of 
Arcis,  where  his  family  is  well  remembered,  and 
they  cudgelled  their  brains  to  think  of  acquaintances 
and  other  means  of  forwarding  his  election  likely  to 
be  found  there.  Thereupon  the  organist  bethought 
himself  of  his  aunt's  perennial  ambition;  he  knew 
that  she  possessed  great  influence  in  the  province, 
where  she  lives  in  the  odor  of  sanctity,  and  that 
she  had  a  touch  of  that  intriguing  instinct  which 
becomes  passionately  interested  in  projects  whose 
execution  is  difficult  and  complicated;  so  he  went  to 
see  her,  by  agreement  with  the  Marquis  de  Salle- 
nauve, and  gave  her  to  understand  that  one  of  the 
most  talented  sculptors  in  France  stood  ready  to  do 
homage  to  her  with  a  statue  executed  in  his  most 
masterly  style,  if  she  would  undertake  to  procure 
the  artist's  election  as  deputy  for  the  arrondisse- 
ment of  Arcis  at  the  approaching  election.  The 
old  nun  did  not  consider  the  enterprise  beyond  her 
strength.  And  lo!  to-day  she  is  in  possession  of  the 
object  she  devoutly  coveted,  which  came  safely 
to  port  a  few  days  since,  and  is  already  set  up  in 
the  chapel  of  the  convent,  where  its  dedication 
with  solemn  ceremonial  will  soon  take  place.  It 
remains  to  be  seen  how  the  excellent  abbess  will 
carry  out  her  part  of  the  bargain. 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  35 1 

Well,  madame,  it  seems  a  strange  thing  to  say, 
but,  after  close  inquiry  and  investigation,  I  should 
not  be  surprised  if  this  extraordinary  woman  should 
succeed.  According  to  the  portrait  our  friend  has 
given  me  of  her,  Mother  Marie  des  Anges  is  a  short, 
thickset  woman,  who  still  has  the  power  to  make  her 
face  attractive  and  winning  under  the  wrinkles  and 
the  layer  of  saffron-hued  pallor  which  time  and  the 
austerities  of  the  cloister,  acting  together,  have  laid 
upon  it.  Carrying  the  weight  of  her  embonpoint  and 
of  her  seventy -seven  years  lightly,  she  is  as  spry  and 
active  and  alert  as  the  youngest.  She  has  governed 
her  community  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  it  has 
always  been  the  most  exemplary  and  best-ordered, 
as  well  as  the  wealthiest,  in  the  whole  diocese  of 
Troyes.  Being  admirably  fitted  for  the  education 
of  youth — the  main  object,  as  you  know,  of  the 
Ursuline  sisterhood — she  has,  for  the  same  length 
of  time  and  with  varying  fortunes,  maintained  a 
boarding-school,  celebrated  throughout  the  depart- 
ment of  the  Aube  and  other  neighboring  districts. 
Having  thus  superintended  the  education  of  the 
daughters  of  all  the  best  families  in  the  province, 
you  can  readily  believe  that  she  has  built  up  for 
herself  a  sort  of  ubiquitous  influence  among  the 
aristocracy  of  Champagne  by  virtue  of  the  rela- 
tions which,  as  the  result  of  a  well-conducted  edu- 
cation, are  generally  continued  indefinitely  between 
the  teacher  and  her  pupils;  probably  she  knows  how 
to  make  the  most  of  those  relations  in  the  struggle 
in    which    she    has    promised    to    take    a    hand. 


352  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

Furthermore,  it  appears  that  this  strange  woman 
has  the  absolute  disposal  of  the  votes  of  the  demo- 
cratic party  in  the  whole  arrondissement.  Thus  far, 
to  be  sure,  the  existence  of  that  party  in  the  place 
where  the  battle  is  to  be  fought  is  precarious  and 
problematical;  but  it  is  by  nature  restless  and  active, 
and  our  candidate  comes  forward  under  its  banner, 
practically  speaking.  Evidently,  therefore,  the  sup- 
port of  which  he  is  assured  in  that  direction  has  its 
usefulness  and  importance.  You  will  certainly  ad- 
mire, madame,  as  I  did  from  the  first,  the  bicepha- 
lous genius,  so  to  speak,  of  this  old  nun,  who  finds 
a  way  to  stand  well  with  the  nobility  and  secular 
clergy,  and  on  the  other  hand  leads  by  the  nose  the 
radical  party,  their  eternal  enemy.  Charitable  and 
enlightened  to  admiration,  looked  upon  throughout 
the  province  as  a  saint,  and  exposed,  during  the 
Revolution,  to  horrible  persecution,  which  she  en- 
dured with  rare  courage,  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  under- 
stand her  friendly  relations  with  the  higher  and 
conservative  classes;  but  does  it  not  pass  all  under- 
standing that  she  should  be  equally  acceptable  to 
democrats  and  demolishers?  The  supreme  power 
that  she  exerts  over  the  revolutionary  party  is 
referable,  madame,  to  a  little  difiiculty  they  once  had 
together;  about  '93,  that  amiable  party  conspired  to 
cut  off  her  head.  Being  driven  from  her  convent  and 
convicted  of  having  given  shelter  to  a  refractory 
priest,  she  was  imprisoned,  haled  before  the  revolu- 
tionary tribunal,  and  sentenced  to  mount  the  scaffold. 
The  thing  was  reported  to  Danton,  who  then  had  a 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  353 

seat  in  the  Convention.  Danton  had  known  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges;  he  considered  her  the  most  vir- 
tuous and  most  enlightened  woman  he  had  ever  met. 
Upon  being  informed  of  her  sentence,  he  flew  into  a 
frightful  rage,  wrote  a  letter  ^  cheval,  as  they  used 
to  say  in  those  days,  to  the  revolutionary  town 
authorities,  and,  speaking  with  an  authority  which 
no  one  in  Arcis  would  have  dreamed  of  questioning, 
ordered  a  reprieve.  On  the  same  day  he  ascended 
the  tribune,  and,  after  speaking  in  a  general  way 
of  some  infernalidiots  who,  by  their  foolish  excesses, 
endangered  the  future  of  the  Revolution,  he  told  what 
Mother  Marie  des  Anges  was,  dwelt  upon  her  marvel- 
ous aptitude  for  instructing  the  young,  and  brought 
forward  a  draft  of  a  decree  by  virtue  of  which  she 
was  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  great  national  gynceceum, 
whose  organization  was  to  be  provided  for  subse- 
quently by  another  decree.  Robespierre,  who  would 
have  seen  in  the  Ursuline's  lofty  intelligence  naught 
but  an  additional  argument  for  the  immediate  appli- 
cation of  the  revolutionary  axe,  was  not  present  at 
that  day's  sitting,  so  that  the  motion  was  enthusi- 
astically carried.  Mother  Marie  des  Anges's  head 
being  indispensably  necessary  to  the  proper  execu- 
tion of  the  decree  just  passed,  she  retained  it,  and 
the  executioner  took  down  his  machine.  Although 
the  other  decree  establishing  the  great  national 
gyncBceum  was  lost  sight  of,  under  the  pressure  of 
other  duties  that  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
Chamber,  the  good  nun  executed  it  in  her  own 
way,  and,  instead  of  something  great  and  Greek 
23 


354  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

and  national,  she  established,  with  the  assistance  of 
some  of  her  former  associates,  a  lay  boarding-school, 
to  which  pupils  flocked  from  all  the  surrounding 
country,  as  soon  as  a  semblance  of  order  had  been 
restored  in  public  affairs  and  in  men's  minds.  Under 
the  Empire  Mother  Marie  des  Anges  was  able  to 
reconstitute  her  community,  and  the  first  act  of  her 
restored  authority  was  a  signal  act  of  gratitude. 
She  decreed  that,  every  year,  on  the  5th  of  April, 
the  anniversary  of  Danton's  death,  a  service  should 
be  held  for  the  repose  of  his  soul  in  the  convent 
chapel. 

To  those  who  remonstrated  against  this  ceremony, 
she  replied: 

"Do  you  know  many  men  for  whom  it  is  more 
necessary  to  implore  the  divine  compassion?" 

Under  the  Restoration  the  celebration  of  that 
service  became  a  serious  matter;  but  Mother  Marie 
des  Anges  would  never  consent  to  abandon  it,  and 
the  great  veneration  with  which  she  is  regarded 
compelled  those  who  were  most  aroused  over  what 
they  called  a  great  scandal  to  submit  to  it.  As  you 
may  imagine,  her  obstinate  courage  received  its  due 
reward  under  the  government  of  July.  To-day, 
Mother  Marie  des  Anges  enjoys  the  highest  consid- 
eration at  court,  and  there  is  nothing  which  she 
cannot  obtain  in  the  most  exalted  spheres;  but  it  is 
fair  to  add  that  she  asks  for  nothing,  not  even  for 
alms  for  her  poor,  whom  she  finds  means  to  assist 
generously  by  virtue  of  the  excellent  administrative 
methods  she  has  introduced  in  the  management  of 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  355 

the  property  of  the  community.  You  will  under- 
stand even  more  readily  that  her  gratitude  for  the 
great  revolutionary  hero  has  been  a  potent  recom- 
mendation with  the  party  of  the  Revolution;  but 
that  is  not  the  whole  secret  of  her  influence  in  that 
party.  The  leader  of  the  Advanced  Left  in  Arcis  is 
a  rich  miller,  one  Laurent  Goussard,  who  owns  two 
or  three  mills  on  the  River  Aube.  This  man,  an 
ex-member  of  the  revolutionary  town-government 
of  Arcis  and  a  particular  friend  of  Danton,  was  the 
man  who  wrote  to  the  terrible  Cordelier  to  inform 
him  that  the  knife  was  suspended  over  the  head  of 
the  former  superior  of  the  Ursulines — which  did  not, 
however,  deter  the  excellent  sans-culotte  from  pur- 
chasing a  large  part  of  the  property  of  the  com- 
munity when  it  was  sold  as  national  property. 

At  the  time  when  Mother  Marie  des  Anges  was 
authorized  to  re-establish  her  community,  Laurent 
Goussard,  who  had  not,  it  seems,  made  very  much 
by  his  purchase,  called  upon  the  good  abbess  and 
proposed  to  restore  the  former  dependencies  of  the 
convent.  Being  a  very  shrewd  business  man,  Lau- 
rent Goussard,  whose  niece,  who  died  in  Paris  in 
1809,  had  been  educated  gratuitously  by  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges,  pretended  to  feel  indebted  to  her 
on  that  account,  and  offered  to  restore  the  property 
of  which  he  had  become  the  possessor  by  revolu- 
tionary title,  if  the  community  would  agree  to  reim- 
burse the  purchase-money.  The  dear  man  would 
not  then  make  a  bad  bargain,  the  difference  between 
the  hard  cash  and  the  assignats  with  which  he  had 


356  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

paid  for  the  property  constituting  a  very  pretty 
profit.  But  Mother  Marie  des  Anges,  remembering 
that  Danton  would  not  have  been  warned  except 
for  his  intervention,  proposed  to  do  even  better  than 
that  for  her  original  rescuer.  The  Ursuline  commu- 
nity was  in  an  excellent  condition,  financially  speak- 
ing, when  Laurent  Goussard  made  this  proposition. 
It  had  received  some  exceedingly  liberal  gifts  since  its 
re-establishment,  and,  in  addition,  was  enriched  by 
all  the  funds  which  its  superior  had  saved  during  the 
long  existence  of  her  lay  boarding-school,  and  which 
she  had  generously  turned  into  the  treasure-chest 
of  the  convent.  Laurent  Goussard  must  have  been 
dumfounded  therefore  when  he  heard  her  reply: 

"Your  proposition  does  not  meet  my  approval.  I 
cannot  purchase  at  a  reduced  price;  my  conscience 
forbids  me  to  do  it.  Before  the  Revolution  the 
property  of  our  abbey  was  appraised  at  so  much; 
that  is  the  price  I  propose  to  pay,  and  not  the  price 
to  which  it  had  fallen  in  sympathy  with  the  depre- 
ciation in  value  undergone  by  all  the  so-called 
national  property.  In  a  word,  my  friend,  I  propose 
to  pay  more  than  you  ask;  tell  me  if  that  suits 
you." 

Laurent  Goussard  thought  at  first  that  he  had 
misunderstood  or  been  misunderstood;  but,  when  it 
was  explained  to  him  that  he  was  indebted  to  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges's  alleged  conscientious  scruples  for 
a  profit  of  about  fifty  thousand  francs,  he  did  not 
choose  to  do  violence  to  such  a  delicate  conscience, 
and,  closing  his  fingers  upon  that  profit,  which  really 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 


357 


fell  into  his  lap  from  the  skies,  he  went  about  tell- 
ing every  one  of  the  marvelous  proceeding,  which, 
as  you  will  see,  madame,  immediately  gave  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges  such  a  place  in  the  esteem  of  all 
purchasers  of  national  property,  that  she  will  never 
have  anything  to  fear  from  another  Revolution.  Per- 
sonally Laurent  Goussard  became  a  sort  of  fanatical 
worshipper  of  her;  he  never  does  a  stroke  of  busi- 
ness, never  moves  a  bag  of  flour  without  going  to 
consult  her;  and  as  she  said  jocosely  the  other  day, 
if  the  whim  should  seize  her  to  make  of  monsieur  le 
sous-prefet  a  Saint  John  the  Baptist,  Laurent  Gous- 
sard would  bring  her  that  functionary's  head  in  a  bag 
within  fifteen  minutes.  Is  not  that  equivalent  to 
telling  you,  madame,  that  at  the  first  sign  from  our 
superior,  he  will  deliver  his  vote  and  those  of  all  his 
friends  to  the  candidate  designated  by  her? 

Mother  Marie  des  Anges's  influence  naturally  has 
extensive  ramifications  among  the  clergy,  as  well  on 
account  of  her  robe  as  of  her  reputation  for  exalted 
virtue;  but  among  her  most  zealous  servitors  she 
reckons  Monseigneur  Troubert,  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  who,  although  a  former  member  of  the 
congregation — See  the  Cure  of  Tours — would  by  no 
means  object  to  receive  from  the  government  of 
July  an  archbishopric  leading  to  a  cardinal's  hat. 
Now,  if  Mother  Marie  des  Anges  would  deign  to 
write  a  line  to  the  queen  in  furtherance  of  his 
ambition,  which  is  justified,  it  must  be  confessed, 
by  eminent  and  unquestionable  talents,  it  is  to  be 
believed  that  its  success  would  not  be  postponed 


358  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

over-long.  But  one  good  turn  deserves  another, 
and  if  the  superior  of  the  Ursulines  works  for  the 
archbishopric,  Monseigneur  de  Troyes  will  work  for 
her  candidate;  nor  would  it  be  a  very  difficult  task 
for  him,  as  the  candidate  for  whom  he  would  be 
expected  to  interest  himself  is  a  pronounced  partisan 
of  the  principle  of  freedom  of  instruction,  the  only 
political  question  in  which  the  clergy  takes  any 
interest  at  the  moment.  When  you  have  the  clergy, 
you  are  very  near  having  the  legitimist  party, 
which,  being  also  warmly  in  favor  of  freedom  of 
instruction,  is  by  no  means  dismayed,  in  its  hatred 
of  the  monarchy  of  July,  at  the  thought  of  an 
unnatural  union  with  the  radical  party  whenever 
the  opportunity  presents  itself.  The  head  of  the 
legitimist  party  in  the  province  is  the  house  of 
Cinq-Cygne.  The  old  marchioness,  of  whose 
haughty  character  and  powerful  will  you  are  well 
aware,  madame — See  A  Dark  Affair — never  comes 
to  her  Chateau  de  Cinq-Cygne  without  pay- 
ing a  visit  to  Mother  Marie  des  Anges,  who  once 
had  for  a  pupil  her  daughter  Berthe,  afterwards  the 
Duchesse  de  Maufrigneuse.  As  for  the  latter's 
husband,  he  cannot  escape  us,  for  Daniel  d'Arthez 
is  my  friend,  as  you  know,  and  through  D'Arthez 
we  have,  beyond  a  peradventure,  the  Princesse  de 
Cadignan,  mother  of  the  pretty  little  duke  on  whom 
we  are  conspiring  to  lay  our  hands.  Now,  if  we 
turn  toward  a  quarter  from  which  we  must  look  for 
more  resistance,  toward  the  so-called  conserva- 
tive party,  which  we  must  not  confuse  with  the 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  359 

ministerial  party,  we  find  that  its  leader  is  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville,  your  husband's  colleague  in 
the  Chamber  of  Peers.  With  him  trains  a  very 
influential  elector,  his  old  friend,  ex-mayor  and 
ex-notary  of  Arcis,  Grevin  by  name,  who,  in  his 
turn,  draws  in  his  orbit  an  elector  of  equal  impor- 
tance, Maitre  Achille  Pigoult,  to  whom  he  sold  his 
office  when  he  retired  from  business.  But  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges  has  a  powerful  lien  upon  the 
Comte  de  Gondreville  through  his  daughter,  the 
Marechale  de  Carigliano.  That  great  lady,  being, 
as  you  know,  a  person  of  most  exemplary  piety, 
comes  to  the  Ursulines  almost  every  year  for  a 
season  of  humble  seclusion.  Furthermore,  Mother 
Marie  des  Anges  claims,  without  going  into  details, 
that  she  has  old  Gondreville  on  the  hip  by  reason 
of  a  certain  matter  known  only  to  herself;  and  it  is  a 
fact  that  the  life  of  that  ex-regicide,  become  senator, 
count  of  the  Empire,  and  afterward  peer  of  France 
under  two  dynasties,has  wound  its  way  through  such 
tortuous  underground  passages  that  one  can  readily 
imagine  secret  openings  which  it  would  not  be 
agreeable  to  him  to  have  laid  bare.  Now,  Gondre- 
ville means  Grevin,  his  confidential  friend  and,  as 
they  say,  his  dme  damnte  for  the  past  fifty  years; 
but,  assuming  that  the  impossible  happens,  and  that 
their  everlasting  alliance  falls  to  pieces  under  the 
present  circumstances,  we  are  sure  in  any  event  of 
Achille  Pigoult,  Grevin's  successor,  who  is,  as 
Grevin  was,  the  notary  employed  by  the  convent, 
and  upon  whom,  at  the  time  the  papers  were  passed 


360  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

in  his  office  to  consummate  the  sale  of  the  estate 
purchased  by  the  Marquis  de  Sallenauve,  the  pur- 
chasers were  careful  to  bestow  a  fee  of  such 
abnormal  and  electoral  proportions,  that  to  accept  it 
was  to  pledge  his  support.  As  for  the  common  herd 
of  electors,  we  cannot  fail  to  make  many  recruits 
among  them  by  the  extensive  works  upon  which 
our  friend  proposes  to  employ  them  in  the  chateau 
of  which  he  is  now  the  owner,  the  said  chateau 
having  the  good  fortune  to  threaten  to  fall  in  ruins 
at  several  points.  We  must  also  reckon  upon  the 
effect  of  a  magnificent  profession  of  faith  which 
Charles  de  Sallenauve  has  just  had  printed,  in  which 
he  declares  flatly  that  he  will  not  accept  any  office 
or  any  favor  from  the  government.  I  may  add  that 
the  clever  oratory  which  may  be  expected  from 
him  at  the  preliminary  meeting  already  announced; 
the  support  of  the  opposition  papers,  in  Paris  as 
well  as  on  the  spot;  the  insults  and  slanders  which 
the  ministerial  organs  have  already  begun  to  dis- 
charge, all  tend  to  encourage  my  hopes,  and  I 
pause  upon  one  last  consideration.  Would  it  be  a 
very  extraordinary  thing  if,  with  a  view  to  give  the 
lie  to  their  somewhat  Boeotian  reputation,  the 
Champenois  should  set  their  hearts  upon  electing  a 
man  of  distinction  in  the  arts,  one  of  whose  master- 
pieces they  have  before  their  eyes,  who  has  come 
of  his  own  free-will  to  take  up  his  abode  among 
them  by  purchasing  an  estate  that  has  been  almost 
ten  years  on  the  market  without  finding  a  purchaser, 
and  who  is  on  the  point  of  restoring  that  estate,  one 


THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS  361 

of  the  glories  of  the  province,  to  its  former  condi- 
tion of  magnificence,  with  generous  and  lavish 
hand? 

Will  my  words  still  be  welcome,  madame,  if, 
upon  the  heels  of  this  long  statement  of  our  resources 
and  our  military  operations,  I  venture  to  complain 
of  my  entire  lack  of  diversion?  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  is  due  to  the  interest  I  take  in  our  friend, 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  electoral  fever,  which  is 
prevalent  everywhere  hereabouts,  has  taken  a 
slight  hold  upon  me,  and  perhaps  you  will  consider 
that  this  letter,  overladen  as  it  is  with  local  details 
in  which,  with  the  greatest  good-will  imaginable, 
you  would  hardly  take  a  very  lively  interest, 
indicates  that  I  have  a  severe  attack  of  the  prevail- 
ing disease.  Moreover,  will  you  thank  me  for 
representing  to  you  as  likely  to  be  soon  invested 
with  the  resplendent  parliamentary  halo,  a  man  of 
whom  you  said  to  me  the  other  day  that  no  one 
could  be  sure  of  his  friendship,  in  view  of  the 
unnatural  and  consequently  somewhat  impertinent 
grandeur  of  his  personality?  To  tell  you  the  truth, 
madame,  whatever  triumphs  may  be  in  store  for 
Charles  de  Sallenauve  in  his  political  career,  I  am 
afraid  that  he  will  some  day  look  back  with  regret 
to  the  more  tranquil  glory  which  was  certain  to  be 
his  in  the  career  of  art;  but  neither  he  nor  I  was 
born  under  a  gracious  and  obliging  star;  even  the 
bare  privilege  of  being  born  was  sold  to  us  very 
dear,  and  it  would  be  doubly  cruel  for  us  not  to 
love  each  other.     You  have  some  kindly  feeling  for 


362  THE  DEPUTY  FROM  ARCIS 

me,  because  it  seems  to  you  that  I  still  exhale  a 
faint  perfume  of  our  beloved  Louise;  try  therefore 
to  have  something  of  the  same  feeling  for  one 
whom,  throughout  this  letter,  I  have  not  hesitated 
to  call  our  friend.  If,  in  whatever  direction  he 
turns,  a  sort  of  offensive  grandeur  of  soul  makes 
itself  manifest  in  him,  should  we  not  rather  pity 
him  than  call  him  sternly  and  deliberately  to  account 
therefor?  and  do  we  not  both  know,  by  cruel 
experience,  that  the  noblest  and  most  brilliant 
things  are  also  the  most  prompt  to  fall  and  be 
blotted  out  in  everlasting  darkness? 


LIST  OF  ETCHINGS 


VOLUME  XXXVI 

FAGB 

IN  DORLANGE'S  STUDIO Fronts. 

THE  AVENUE  OF  SIGHS 48 

AT  THE  INN  OF  LE  MULET      136 

MME.  DE  LANTY  TO  M.  DORLANGE 280 

AT  THE  HOTEL  DE  LA  POSTE 328 


36  C.  H.,  Arcis  i,  N.  &  R.  363 


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